Crimson Feathers
by Phoenix Abbot
Summary: It's the 68th annual Hunger Games. Phoenix Abbot, District 8, is against everything about the games, and breaks all the rules. But what happens when this rebel becomes a tribute along with the very last boy she wants to fight against, and the Games destroy their relationship and Phoenix's entire world? First chapter is crappy, but it gets better, I promise! Please R&R! :)
1. Scream

**Hi guys! So, first chapter is finally up! I got so annoyed when I noticed you had to wait two days before you could upload something. So I've got like 5 chapters ready, but I won't give you all at once ;) Maybe I'll upload every Friday, maybe Sunday if I don't have time to write during the week. **

**Personally, I didn't like this chapter that much. I wanted it more dramatic and exciting, 'cause I think the first chapter is very important. You want it to be very exciting so that the readers stay. But hang on there; the next chapters will be better, I promise, so be sure to come back!**

**The whole story is written from Phoenix's aspect, maybe I'll throw in some other character once and a while.**

**UPDATE: Okay, so, I've written a few chapters by now, and I actually have some readers, I see that on my stats. But I barely get any reviews, and it's the reviews that make me happy, not the number of readers I've got. You don't have to write a long review, just tell me what you think and you will make my day! ;)**

**UPDATE 2: I realized that I don't like this chapter that much, so I will re-write it sometime. The later chapters are much better, so if you think this chapter sucks, I don't blame you, but please give it a chance and continue reading anyway :)**

* * *

I slowly raised my arm and grabbed an arrow in the quiver on my back. I put the arrow in place and aimed at the deer in front of me. _Swoosh! _The arrow buried itself in a tree and the deer ran off. I cursed for myself. _I wouldn't even be able to hit the world's largest deer if it depended on my life._

I walked to the tree and pulled the arrow out and put it back in my quiver.

"Phee-Phee!" shouted a girl from behind me. I turned around and saw Mia walking against me. "Did you get anything?"

"Yeah, a squirrel that was already lying on the ground half-eaten. How about you?"

Mia lifted her hand where she held 5 squirrels.

"And you're gonna have to help me carry the deer I shot. It's over here."

I sighed and followed Mia further into the woods where a deer was lying hidden by some branches and leaves.

"So, were going to the Market now?" Mia said when we were beginning to see some houses between the trees.

"We can't really walk right into the neighborhood with a deer and some squirrels. We'll be dead in a minute."

"The Market it is then"

We turned left into an area where the trees stood closer. Hiding a hole in the ground, the trees stood like a wall all around it. The only way to get inside was to climb. Which was kind of hard to do while carrying animals. That was why it was a good thing to be more than one.

I climbed up the trees to the point where you easily could get to the other side. Mia reached me the animals and I threw them down and then climbed down myself. Mia came shortly after. We jumped down the hole in the ground with the animals and walked through a small passage until we got to a large area. There were sale-stands along the edges and people everywhere. The area was badly lit with a few light bulbs here and there.

My grip hardened against the deer and Mia and I walked through the crowd. I felt someone trying to snatch the deer but I pulled it back. Stealing was not unusual at the Market, even though almost everyone had great prices.

We got to a stand where my brother Jonathan sat.

"How's it going?" I said and sat down at the edge of the stand.

"Good, I guess. I traded three shrews for a piece of lamb." Jonathan said and threw a piece of meet next to me.

"That's too good. Probably a sick lamb, otherwise the person who gave it to you is really stupid" I picked up the piece of lamp and examined it.

"Yeah I know. I think it was a stolen lamb, it was Harley who gave it to me." Jonathan said and put the meat back in the bag under his chair. Harley was a homeless guy living in District 10. He spent his day walking around begging for food, or rip off people at the Market by trading them fake stuff. But, he was homeless and really poor, so we used to pretend we believed him and give him some shrews or a bird.

"Are we leaving, or what?" I said impatiently, since we had to get back before mom got home from work. Jonathan and I didn't live in District 10. It was much easier to sell animals at the Market in District 10, than in District 8. The security in District 8 was much tougher. So every day after school we sneaked over the fence to District 10. Jonathan went straight to the Market and I met Mia in the woods for hunting. Not that I usually got anything, it was Mia who was the hunter. On my best day so far I had gotten three shrews and two birds. That same day, Mia got two baby deers, a fox and seven squirrels. And that wasn't even her best day.

Anyway, we couldn't hunt all day. Mom got crazy if we weren't home when she got home, so we had to get past the fence before the factories closed for the day. 'Cause the road that went from the factories to the part of the district where everyone lived, went right next to the fence that separated District 8 from 10.

"Sure, let's go" Jonathan answered.

He took the bag under his chair and we started to walk back to the entrance. I stopped at various stands and bought meaningless stuff for some money I stole last week. That was my hobby. To steal money from the rich idiots from the Capitol that was visiting and spend them on stuff at the Market, just to be able to give away some money.

We got to the fence separating the districts. You could easily hear the buzzing from the electricity running through it. There was a piece of the fence that was broken at the bottom. It looked like some kind of animal had run right through it. The wires were pointing all over place, and there was a hollow in the ground underneath the broken fence. It looked hard, but it wasn't that hard to get through.

I had never gotten a shock from it, but Jonathan had. It was a couple of years ago, the first time I was going to District 10. I was about 10 years old. I had just gone through the fence when I saw a butterfly. I started following it, and I ran away so Jonathan couldn't see me anymore. When he realized I was gone, he got stressed and got a shock from the wires. I remember I heard him scream so I went back. Luckily, there were some people nearby that heard him, and helped him back inside District 8 and to a hospital. I don't know what happened in the hospital. I don't know if he got a scar, or whatever happens when you get an electric shock. He didn't want to tell me, not even now, 5 years later.

Since then I never ran away from him again. He screamed so painfully when it happened, and I didn't want him to go through that again. Everytime I watched Jonathan go through the hole, and he was close to getting a shock, I shuddered and heard his scream inside my head.

* * *

**Not the longest chapter, but I wanted to start easy, please review :)**


	2. Right or Wrong?

**Hi guys! I couldn't wait, so I decided to upload the second chapter a few days earlier. But the next chapter will probably come on Sunday. A little longer this time, and hopefully better. I think so at least. It's better than the last chapter, but not the best, I know I can write better. Hope you like it, and please review! ;)**

**P.S I'm also waiting for a picture that my bestie is drawing that I will use as a cover for this story. She's an amazing artist, so be preapred for some amazing art!  
**

* * *

It didn't take long to walk from the fence to our house. Five to ten minutes depending on how much stuff we had brought home from the Market. That day I had only bought 3 glass-jars and a piece of blue fabric. Jonathan never bought anything at the market, unless he really needed it, so that day he only carried a small box where we had money, the piece of lamb and some other meats he had traded for.

We walked through the door into a quiet house. Jonathan walked into the kitchen and put the bag with the lamb on the table. I walked into my room and saw two dresses lying on my bed. They looked pretty much alike, but one was beige and the other was light green. I didn't know what it was, but other than the color, I thought the light green was prettier.

I stood for a second and watched the beautiful dresses. Mom must have made them. She was a very good seamstress. I shook my head and returned to the reality. No. I was not wearing either one of them. I wasn't even going to the Reaping. I didn't get it, why did everyone make such a huge effort to look nice at the Reaping? It was just a gathering to decide who was going to die on television. It was stupid. The whole Hunger Games were stupid. Why? Why make such a huge deal of something that happened 68 years ago? And why would people watch it? I didn't know how the people in the Capitol thought, but I knew that the people in District 8 and 10 also thought it was stupid. So why did they watch it? Why not just ignore it?

I put the dresses in my wardrobe and went back to the kitchen. I put the glass-jars on the table, and then went to mom and dad's bedroom and put the fabric on their bed. I folded it and laid it down carefully, so it lay as perfectly and wrinkle-free as the dresses when they were on my bed.

"Are you going to the Reaping this year?"

I didn't even notice when Jonathan stepped into the room.

"No" I answered simply and went out of the room. I walked towards my room and I saw in the corner of my eye that he followed me.

"Come on. I don't care if you think it's stupid, you have to go. It's to show respect to those who get chosen, and to show their families that you're sorry for them." He said.

I didn't answer. I did feel sorry for the tribute's families, but I showed it my own way. I was not going to stand there watch some stupid film and hear Effie Trinket jabber about what honor it is to be chosen. No. I wasn't.

I stepped into my room and closed the door, but it stopped for Jonathan's foot.

"Come on. Please! For me?"

I answered by kicking his foot so it went out of the way for the door and slammed it closed.

I threw myself on my bed and buried my face into my pillow. I screamed loudly and pounded with my fists on my bed. Then I just lay there. I don't know how long I lay there, but I heard mom coming home, asking Jonathan how his day had been and asking where I was. I heard dad and my younger brother Andrew coming home. I heard them talking about what we would have for dinner. Jonathan didn't tell about the piece of lamb, which was understandable. First, neither mom nor dad knew we used to sneak over to District 10 after school. They didn't worry about us as long as we were home when they got home. They trusted us. Second, we probably wouldn't be able to eat it, so it was just unnecessary to get there hopes up for something we couldn't eat.

I didn't get out of bed until dinner was ready. When I opened the door the smell almost knocked me over. I didn't recognize it, but it smelled fantastic. Dad and Andrew must have been out buying spices earlier. That would explain why they got home at the same time.

When I walked closer to the table I saw the giant pot on the table filled with some kind of stew. The sauce had a beautiful brown color and there were pieces of meat and colorful vegetables floating around in it. My mouth let out the first thought that popped into my head.

"How the hell did we afford this?"

"Well, every time your mom and I got our salary we put away some, if we someday would need it. And last week we thought, 'Why not use some of it on a really nice meal before the Reaping'? So, we did." Dad answered and sat down at the table.

The rest of the family followed him and sat down. I slowly walked closer to the table. Was I dreaming? We could never afford this!

"What is it?"

"It's lamb with artichoke, carrot and turnip. Come on, sit down."

I sat down at the table and put a large spoonful of stew on my plate. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the rich smell, before I tasted it. It was amazing.

"So, how was it?" Mom asked and looked at me, Jonathan and Andrew. I was speechless.

"Absolutely incredible!" Andrew shouted and stuffed his mouth with meat.

"Delicious" Jonathan agreed and poured another portion.

"Did you see the dresses I laid out for you?" Mom whispered to me. I just smiled and put another spoonful of stew on my plate.

* * *

After dinner I thought about it. It was wrong of me to enjoy that stew. The only reason mom made that stew was because of the Reaping. If there were no Reaping, mom would have never made that stew. And since I ignore the Reaping and the whole Hunger Games, I should've ignored the stew. I should have just cooked some beans, and eat it at my room, so I wouldn't even smell the stew.

I went into my room and opened the wardrobe. I pulled out the green dress and held it in front of me while looking in the mirror. It truly was beautiful. Even though I knew it was for the Reaping, I allowed myself to stand there and admire the dress. But then I carefully put it back and went to bed.

* * *

I couldn't sleep that night. Normally, I wasn't nervous about the Reaping, but that night I couldn't stop thinking about it. It wasn't that I was nervous about Andrew, he was only 10. It was Jonathan's last year, but I didn't think he would be that unlucky that he would get picked his last year. For once, I was actually nervous about me. I had never been nervous before, and I hadn't thought about it earlier, but that night it hit me. If I would get picked, I would have to fight to the death. I would have to kill other people. And not just any people, people my age.

I wouldn't let myself think about it, so I decided to go hunt a little. I sneaked out of room and went to the door. I was just about to open it when I heard Andrew's voice behind me.

"Where are you going?"

I let the door-handle go and walked up to Andrew.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" I said, looking him in the eyes,

"I can't sleep. What if you or Jonathan gets picked tomorrow? What if both of you get picked?" he said with a sad tone in his voice.

"We won't get picked. I promise. Neither one of us have registered for tesserae. We're safe"

"Just because you haven't signed up for tesserae doesn't mean your names aren't in those bowls!"

"Look at me. I promise. We won't get picked" For some reason I didn't believe fully in myself when I said that.

"Where are you going?" Andrew asked again.

"I just wanted some air. Can't sleep"

"Can I come?"

I sighed. No hunting for me.

"Fine"

We sneaked out of the house and I closed the door as quietly as I possibly could. We started walking towards the Town Square. You could hear people yelling at each other, and metals clashing together. They were building the stage for the Reaping. When Andrew realized what I was going to do he looked at me panic-stricken.

"No! You can't! It's wrong!"

"Really? It's wrong for me to take money from them, but it's not wrong for them to take human beings from us?"

"Of course it is, but we can't do anything about them! At least you have feelings, you can think about it and realize that it's wrong!"

"I just want them to pay for what they're doing. It's not much, but at least it's something."

Andrew gave up. I guess he realized it was no use trying to convince me.

We sneaked up behind a building and I peeked out at the people building the stage. They were dressed in stained working clothes, but among them walked a couple of people dressed in colorful clothes and matching wigs. Residents from the Capitol. What else?

"Stay here, I'll be right back" I said to Andrew and sneaked closer to the stage. I crouched down behind the stage and peeked out. The ones from the Capitol had tiny purses hanging from their shoulders. Perfect. I went back to Andrew.

"Okay. I want you to start walking right out there, pretending like you're walking in your sleep. Then, when you hear my sign, wake up."

"Okay. Wait, what sign?"

"I don't know, I'll sound like an owl, or something like that. You'll notice. Now go!" I pushed him out behind the building and he started walking slowly against the stage. He made some noises which made everyone at the Town Square rush against him.

"Oh my god, is he okay? Hello? Hello!?" one of them said and waived her arm in front of Andrews face.

"I think he's sleepwalking" another one said.

"We have to wake him up!" a third one said.

"I have some perfume in my purse, maybe that'll help?" the second said.

"That sounds good, we'll try that!" the third one answered, and they all led Andrew towards the stage and sat him down.

I sneaked down behind the stage and watched them. The one with the perfume removed her purse from her shoulder and pulled out a glass-bottle filled with a pink fluid. She put down her bag next to her while she sprayed some of the perfume on Andrew.

I quickly snatched her purse without anyone noticing and looked for anything of any value. I took three shining gold coins and a couple of copper-coins before I put it back and ran back behind the building. I made some kind of bird-noise and heard Andrew pretending to wake up and asking where he was and stuff like that. He was a very good actor. It didn't take long for him to convince them that he didn't lived far away and was able to get home by himself.

"Did you get anything?" he asked as soon as he met me behind the building.

But before I had the time to answer a loud voice screamed from the stage.

"My money! The boy's a thief!"

* * *

_**Dun dun duuuuun! Cliffhanger... ;)**_


	3. Help

**Third chapter came a little late, but at least it's up ;)**

**A short chapter this time, but when I write about the day of the Reaping, I wanted it to be a whole new chapter. **

**Hope you like it, and please review **

* * *

When I heard those words, my eyes widened and I panicked.

"Run!" I said to Andrew and he started running home.

I peeked around the corner and saw a couple of peacekeepers coming at me. Without thinking I ran out from behind the building, right past them. I was hoping they would run after me, which they did. They followed me running from the opposite direction of Andrew. I ran far from the Town Square, towards the fence and District 10. I peeked behind me now and then to make sure they were still following me.

When I could see the fence and the hole, I started running faster. I got to the fence and crouched. Something was different. It felt that the wires were tighter, but I would probably still be able to get through. It was hard, but I managed to get my head and arms through the hole. Then I saw the peacekeepers only a couple of meters behind me, so I panicked and did the only thing I could think of. I just threw the rest of my body through the hole. I felt a tear of pain through my whole right leg and it felt hot. I started running away from the peacekeeper. My leg hurt at every step and my whole body was shaking, but somehow I was able to keep running. When I looked behind my back I saw the them crouched at the hole. They were bigger than me, so they struggled to get through, but I didn't slow down. I just kept running. I got to the trees surrounding the entrance to the Market and climbed up. It felt like ages to get up, my leg wouldn't do what I wanted. When I had turned to the other side of the trees I saw that the peacekeepers had got through, and weren't far behind me. So I just jumped down to the hard ground. Then everything got dark.

* * *

When I woke up I was laying in my bed. I sat up and my whole leg started hurting. I had a bad headache and a bandage around my right arm. I looked at my leg and saw that I had a bandage on it too. I tried to lift the bandage to see what had happened. My skin was red. No, that didn't look like skin. It looked like flesh. The electric shock had burned my skin. I put the bandage back and looked at my arm. I hadn't burned my arm, but it still hurt.

I slowly went out of bed and tried to stand on my leg. It hurt, but I was able to walk. It was still dark out, but I heard people out in the kitchen. I opened the door, and saw my mother by the stove and my father and Andrew at the table. Dad was talking to Andrew, but Andrew just looked down at the table. Dammit. He had got in trouble. When dad saw me he stopped talking and looked at me. I could see he was disappointing.

"What were you thinking?" he said, shaking his head.

I didn't answer, but walked to the table and sat down. Andrew still had his head down, but I saw that he peeked at me.

"What were you thinking?!" he repeated. "Stealing money?! And you really had to drag Andrew in to it?!"

"But daddy, she didn't! I-" Andrew started, but I interrupted him.

"No, Andrew. Don't…"

"And you didn't only steal money; you stole money from the residents from the Capitol! Do you realize how serious that is? If someone found out about this, you would get killed! Right there on Town Square, when everybody's wa-"

"Take it easy, Grayson" mom said. "She was only trying to help us, plus, she's hurt, so leave her alone."

Dad sighed and went from the table. Mom pulled a pot from the stove and put it on the table. Then she got a big bowl and a spoon and sat down across the table from me. I took the bowl and poured up some soup from the pot and stated slurping.

"Don't think I'm completely on your side, it was still wrong." Mom said.

I nodded.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"I got worried when you didn't come home, so I went out looking. When I didn't find you I thought you went to hide in District 10, so I went there and saw you lying inside the trees." Andrew said and lifted his eyes from the table.

I knew what he meant. He thought I was hiding in the Market. But he couldn't say that in front of mom, she can't know about the Market.

"How did you know that you could get to District 10?" Mom asked. The question was meant for both me and Andrew.

"Andrew and I went for a walk one day, and we saw the whole. I guess we both thought about it tonight."

"Anyway, you got an electric shock on your leg and got some burns from that, and you somehow sprained your arm. But you'll be fine. Just take it easy the next few weeks." Mom said. "Now go to sleep, both of you. The Reaping's tomorrow.

Andrew went from the table and in to his room, while I lingered.

"I'm sorry, mom" I said.

"It's okay. You were just trying to help. Just, don't do it again." Mom said without looking at me. But it wasn't okay.

I can't believe how stupid I was. Not by stealing money, I don't regret that, I never will. But getting Andrew to help. I shouldn't even have considered letting him join me.

I went to my room and tried to sleep. But once again, it was impossible. This time, I was thinking that I got to be careful the next time I was out hunting, or stealing. Mom and dad would obviously keep an extra eye on me.


	4. My Brother

**Hi everybody! So, fourth chapter is up a little late, but I've been lying sick in my bed for a week with really high fever, and my head just hurt like hell when I turned on my computer. And I know I said I have 5-6 chapters ready that I wrote earlier, but I realized I didn't liked them, so I'm rewriting them. I mean, the chapters I haven't posted yet, it's nothing for you to worry about, really, so I don't know why I'm telling you :P I've also added a cover to this story, it's a picture made by one of my dearest friends, isn't it amazing?! You can find more of her art on her deviantArt-page, link is in my profile. Anyway, hope you like chapter 4 :)  
**

* * *

I woke up to the usual Reaping-smell. Eggs and bacon, freshly baked bread and lots of different berries. Not that the berries smelled anything. I heard bacon sizzle in the pan, and egg-shells crack and get thrown in the sink. I heard someone cutting the bread, and I heard the table getting set. Then I heard someone pounding on my door.

"Phoenix, get up, it's the Reaping!" dad shouted.

"Grayson, tone it down. As you said, it's the Reaping, we don't want to argue. I know you're still upset, but try not to yell at her" mom defended me.

Dad sighed and I heard him step away from my door.

I went up and put on a white t-shirt and a pair of shorts with a brown belt and went out to the kitchen. As soon as I sat down at the table mom stared at me as if I was crazy.

"What are you wearing?" she asked after inspecting me from head to toe.

"Clothes…" I answered and grabbed a piece of warm bread.

"But it's the Reaping"

"Well, I didn't want to stain any of your beautiful dresses. I'm changing after breakfast" I lied without looking at her. If I looked her in the eye, she would be able to tell I was lying.

Mom looked like she was thinking of it and nodded.

"Well, of course…" She said.

"Can we start?" Andrew asked and looked at mom with his puppy-eyes.

I looked at mom, and then at the half-eaten piece of bread in my hand. Oops.

"Of course, you can" Mom smiled at Andrew.

Everybody stretched over the table to reach all of the goodieness mom and dad had fixed just for today. Again, why this luxury for a killing-competition?

Even though I wanted to eat the entire table, I stood for my thoughts, and settled with two pieces of bread and an egg. Well, and berries of course. Berries were no luxury. Just walk outside and you've got five different kinds of berries within 30 feet. I walked from the table quite early, while the others stuffed themselves with food.

I walked to my room and opened the drawer once again and looked at the dresses. I would use them. Sometime. Just not today. Never on the Reaping. That wasn't an occasion to dress up for. You don't dress up for the Reaping. You dress up for weddings, funerals, or when someone's born. But not for the Reaping.

I smashed the drawer closed. I pulled on my green jacket that was lying on top of the wardrobe, dragged on a pair of boots and some gloves and jumped out the window with my bow and quiver.

I ran out to the fence and to the hole. But then I stopped. Someone had bent the wires so that they were covering the hole. Dammit.

I sat down on the ground and screamed out in the open, then buried my face in my knees and just sat there. I could hear some people from the town, and some birds in the woods, but other than that it was quiet. Too quiet. I stood up and went closer to the fence. No buzz. Was it really turned off? I slowly reached for the fence with my finger. When it touched the fence, I felt… nothing. The power was really turned off. I crouched down at the hole and bent away the wires so that you could easily get through again. When I was about to step through I heard someone running towards me.

"Hey! Get away from there!" a dark voice yelled at me. I turned my head and saw a peacekeeper running towards me. Dammit. Not again.

Luckily I hadn't got my arms through the hole yet, so I went back and started running towards town square. Some people had already got in place for the Reaping, but not a lot. I ran through them and then took a detour home by running here and there between the buildings so the peacekeeper would lose me.

When I couldn't hear or see him anymore I started running straight home. I ran to my open window and climbed into my room. Just when I had closed the window I saw the peacekeeper running past it. I hadn't got inside a second too late.

"Honey? Are you getting dressed?" Mom opened the door carefully and peeked inside. Then she stared at me.

"Uhh… No. I… was just… figuring out which dress I'm going to wear… Yeah." I said, smiling and nodding.

"What have you done? You look like you were lying in a pile of mud! Go get a bath before you get dressed!" Mom pushed me out of my room and into the bathroom.

I sighed and stood in front of the stained old mirror. I had some stains in my face, and other than the bandages I had some bruises on my arms and legs. Nothing too bad. I quickly washed off my face and my bruises and then sat on the toilet to waste time. After a couple of minutes mom knocked on the door.

"Are you done, sweetie?"

"Yeah, almost done."

"I laid out the dresses on your bed. Have you decided which one you're going to wear?"

"No, not yet"

"Okay, well, they're both there. Personally, I think you should go with the green one"

After I heard mom leaving I sneaked out of the bathroom and into my room. I changed into a less dirty white t-shirt and put up my hair in a high ponytail and then laid down on my bed to wait.

"Phoenix, were leaving, are you ready?" Mom said through the door.

"You can go, I'll catch up" That was my excuse not to go with my family to the Reaping every year, but I never catched up with them. Mom probably didn't care, she never brought it up after the Reaping.

I stayed in my bed until I heard the door close and the house went quiet. I went out of my bedroom and in to the living room, expecting no one. But when I turned into the living room, Jonathan appeared in front of me.

"Whoa! You scared me. Aren't you supposed to be at the Reaping?"

"Aren't you supposed to be at the Reaping?" Jonathan answered with his arms crossed, his deep blue eyes piercing into mine.

"Fair enough" I looked away from him. I couldn't meet him eye to eye. It was too much.

"You can't skip the Reaping. You will go to that Reaping, even if I have to carry you there, and hold you still during the entire ceremony" He wasn't kidding.

"Why this Reaping? Every year you told me to go to the Reaping, but you've never really tried to convince me like you're doing now. Why is it so important this year?"

"It just is! Why won't you go?"

"Because it's wrong! It's wrong to eat good food and dress up, just so you can gather to decide who's going to die in public!"

"It's to show respect! It's to show compassion, to those who have to die in public!"

"You said that yesterday! But I do feel respect, I do feel compassion! It's not like I don't have a heart, I just show it my own way! I show it by not giving a crap about the Capitol, I show it by screwing their stupid gatherings!" I felt tears filling up my eyes, so I turned away. I couldn't show Jonathan I was about to cry.

"Well maybe you should tell them! You know, we can't read minds! When you never show up on gatherings, when people hear you steal money from the rich, don't you get what kind of reputation that gives?! How the hell can people figure out that's the way you show your compassion?! Everyone thinks you're a big thief without feelings. Only the people from District 10 know who you really are! Why can't you show who you really are to our neighbors too?! Do you realize how hard it is for us to buy or sell stuff because of your reputation?! No one wants to buy stuff from us, because they think you stole it, and that that will get them into trouble! No one wants to sell stuff to us, because they think they're getting stolen money! We can hardly live here, because of you! We live on the things you and I get at District 10, and that's not even legal! We can hardly live because of you!"

Tears started to fall down my cheeks, and I could see Jonathan started to cry as well.

I turned around and went back into my bedroom. I slammed the door closed and lie down on my bed and let the tears flow. Both my cheeks and my pillow got soaked. I heard the front door get slammed when Jonathan went out.

Did Jonathan really mean that? That everything was my fault? Our terrible life was my fault? I was only trying to make it better by taking money from those who had too much, and giving it to those who didn't have enough. I didn't realize it was making things worse.

The only reason I cried was because I didn't realized that's what Jonathan thought about me. I hated to argue with him. He's my brother. Nothing can change that.

I had to make up with him again. I went out of bed, dried up my face and ran out. I ran up to town square. It was crowded with people now. Everybody had probably already got there, 'cause there were no line were you gave your blood. I ran up to the table and reached out my finger. They stung my fingertip and smudged my blood on a paper, and I ran into the crowd of kids. I could see Jonathan in a group of guys his age. I ran against them, but a peacekeeper stood in my way.

"Excuse me, miss, this is the boys section. The girls section is over there" The peacekeeper said and pointed behind me.

"Yeah, I know, I just have to-" I started, but the peacekeeper interrupted me.

"Sorry, miss, but we're about to start, so will you please go stand by your age-group" he said and pushed me against the other 15 year-olds.

"But, please, I just need to talk to-"

"Please, miss, be quiet, we're just about to start"

I gave up and stood by the other girls my age. Everyone gave me sarcastic looks and turned their backs against me. The peacekeeper that had stopped me from getting to Jonathan stood like 3 feet away from me and threw an eye on me every now and then. I looked around me. Peacekeepers were surrounding the entire girl-section. There was no way I was getting out of this. I was going to stand here the entire Reaping and watch the stupid video, listen to Emerald Channing jabber about the games, and then actually for the last time watch the two unlucky kids that were going to die on TV. Great.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" A voice said from the stage. Emerald truly stood out. Sure, many from District 8 had nice clothes, but Emerald was dressed in a different way. She looked like a flower with her brown shoes and brown stockings, green tight skirt, green top, green jacket and a bright pink extremely curly wig.

"We stand here today, to pick out one brave man and one brave woman, to represent District 8 in the 68th Hunger Games. But first, let's see, why it is we chose our tributes each year."

The white screen behind Emerald turned black and the film about our history showed. It actually wasn't the first time I saw it. I had watched it before I was twelve, before I could become tribute, when I came to support Jonathan. And then I actually attended my first Reaping, when I was twelve. But after that, I had ditched the Reaping and went out to hunt, or just walk around, in the extremely quiet town. So it was the second time I watched it as a possible tribute. I had forgotten how boring it was.

When the screen finally turned white again Emerald stepped in front of the mike again.

"So, let's find out who will represent District 8 in this year's Hunger Games. "

Emerald walked up to one of the big glass bowls full of paper scraps and pulled one out. She went back to the mike and opened up the scrap of paper.

"Phoenix Abbot"

Oh Crap.

* * *

**I'm ending the chapter here, hope you liked it, and please review! And I've also got a question for you guys; do you think Jonathan should get picked for male tribute, or should it maybe be some childhood-friend, or just a complete stranger? What do you think? Tell me your ideas!**


	5. Promise

**So, it took a while, but finally Chapter 5 is up! Hope you like it, and please review! ;)**

* * *

When I got to the aisle peacekeepers surrounded me and followed me to the stage. I could hear people whispering about me. Nothing good.

When I stepped on to the stage I made sure I looked confident. My eyes immediately snapped to Jonathan who looked at me. His eyes looked sad, but I could see he was still angry, even though I actually went to the Reaping. I stood in place and looked out at the crowd. I waited, but no one volunteered. I was going to be in the Hunger Games.

Emerald went to the other bowl and pulled out a piece of paper.

"And our male tribute is… Jonathan Abbot"

It took a while for me to realize who the male tribute was. Oh crap. Again. This couldn't be happening. My eyes snapped to Jonathan once again, and I saw him walk confidently towards the stage. He avoided looking at me, but looked empty right in front of him.

My eyes wandered around the crowd to find him. Andrew. I'd promised him neither of us would get picked. When I couldn't find him I looked at Jonathan instead. He now stood next to me, but still wasn't looking at me.

"Abbot… You don't happen to be related, do you?" Emerald looked at me and Jonathan. Jonathan didn't answer, so I did it myself.

"Siblings" I said.

"Siblings? This will be very interesting. Well then, ladies and gentlemen; I present to you, your tributes for the 68th Hunger Games; Phoenix and Jonathan Abbot!" Emerald shouted out in the microphone.

Some people applauded. Probably the stupid rich guys who just wanted entertainment. The others just stood there quietly.

Some peacekeepers led us inside the building behind us. Since we were siblings, we were allowed to stay in the same room where people would come to say goodbye to us.

I sat down on a three-seat sofa covered in some red soft fabric. The room was covered in dark red wallpapers. There was a chair covered in the same fabric as the sofa I was sitting in. Other than the seating's there was no other furniture. Jonathan stood by a large window and looked out.

"Jonathan, I-" I started, but got interrupted by Andrew running in to the room and in to me. Behind him mom and dad walked in.

"You promised! You promised you wouldn't get picked! You promised!" Andrew cried and pounded me in the stomach.

"Andrew! Take it easy!" I said and grabbed his arms so he wouldn't hit me.

"But you promised! And you broke it!" he continued crying.

"Andrew! Shhh… take it easy!" I tried to calm him down. He stopped hitting me but continued crying. I pulled him into my lap and put my arms around him.

"Take it easy…" I said and stroked his back to get him to stop crying.

He calmed down and just sat in my lap.

"You promised. You promised neither one of you would get picked. And now both of you are going in to that arena." Andrew sobbed.

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break my promise. It was wrong. 'Cause you shouldn't break a promise. A promise is a promise, and it should be held. I'm sorry. I owe you one" I said in a calming voice and continued stroking his back.

While I sat down comforting Andrew, dad went to Jonathan and talked to him, and mom sat next to me and hugged me. I looked at her, with my arms still around Andrew, and my eyes filled with tears.

"I don't know what to do" I said.

"Just… Make sure you and your brother are friends again before any of you get out of that arena"

"How did you know-"

"I'm your mother. I could see something was wrong when you stood on that stage" mom said with a hint of a smile on her lips.

"I promise" I said. And this time I was not going to break it.

Mom stood up and walked up to Jonathan, and dad sat down in the chair. He looked empty at me.

"I'm sorry, dad" I said without looking at him. I didn't know what else to say.

"Don't think about that anymore. Just try to survive out there" Dad said.

A peacekeeper opened the door.

"Your time is up" he said.

"Please, come home!" Andrew said and ran out of my lap and hugged Jonathan. He crouched down to Andrew.

"I promise I will do my best" Jonathan said.

Mom and dad hugged me and Jonathan before they left. I sat down at the couch again. But then it hit me. I may not ever see them anymore. That could've been the last time I talked to any of them.

No. I had to think positive. I would do my best, and I would get friends with Jonathan again before any of us were getting out.

Jonathan sat down at the chair. We didn't say anything to each other. We waited, but no one else came to see us. I expected Mia to walk through the door anytime, but then I remembered we didn't live in the same district.

But wait. What if she got picked too? I couldn't have that bad luck, could I?

After a while another peacekeeper came to pick us up. He took us to a small vehicle. I'd seen them at the earlier Reaping's, but I'd never sat in one.

It was a bumpy ride towards the train. Emerald sat between me and Jonathan and asked us about our relationship. Jonathan never said anything, so I tried to be polite and answer her questions the best I could. I glanced at Jonathan but he just sat there and stared blank in front of him. Several times Emerald asked questions directly to Jonathan, but he didn't say anything. I tried to answer for him.

"So, are you excited for the journey? We have lots of great food at the train" Emerald said.

"Well… It's gonna be nice with all the food, we can't really afford that nice food at home" I answered politely. But actually, I just wanted to slap her, scream at Jonathan and run away to Mia.

"And how about you Jonathan?" Emerald smiled at Jonathan.

But again, Jonathan didn't say anything. Well, at least one of the things I wanted to do would happen.

"Oh, for God's sake, Jonathan! You can't still be mad! I went to the Reaping, didn't I? Can't you just let it go? And you really don't have to let it out on everyone else! You can at least answer Emerald's stupid questions so I don't have to sit here and pretend to care about everything she says!" I screamed at Jonathan.

After I said it, I remembered Emerald was sitting right next to me, but I didn't care. She looked shocked and probably didn't know what to say, so she just sat there quietly.

"Really? You really think I'm still that mad about our argument? Sure, I'm still mad at you, but did you ever think that there might be something else that happened just recently that I could be upset about? I don't know, maybe that I might have to kill my own sister in a couple of days?"

"How am I supposed to know what you're mad about when you're not talking to me?"

And just like that, he stopped talking to me again. And since Emerald wasn't talking anymore, it was quiet the rest of the way to the train. Every 10th second I thought about jumping out of the vehicle. And after about 2 minutes I did.

* * *

**And a question for you guys; Do you think Mia should get picked in her district or is that waaaaay overdone?**


	6. Secret

**Hi, guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've had zero inspiration, but when I finally got some and wrote the chapter, I couldn't post it, 'cause I've been on "vacation" at my grandparents in Finland, and since they don't even own a computer, they don't have any internet connection (Damn…). But my dad bought something so we would get internet (YEY!), but then it didn't work (Damn…), but then he made it work (YEY!), and I could post this. Anyway, hope you like it, and please review ;)**

* * *

I ran the fastest I could in the direction we came from.

"Stop her!" someone screamed behind me, and a bunch of peacekeepers ran after me.

I was lucky, the peacekeepers weren't nearly as fast as I was. But my luck quickly disappeared. A vehicle, like the one I just sat in, drove past me and stopped a couple of feets in front of me. I turned around to run in the other direction but stopped when I saw the peacekeepers getting closer.

So instead, I ran to the side towards some buildings. The roads between the buildings were too narrow for the vehicle, so it was perfect for getting away. I ran in between the buildings, where the roads were like a maze.

I didn't know where I was going, I only made sure I wasn't running towards where I came from. I thought my plan would work, but I was wrong. When I turned I flew in the arms of a peacekeeper.

"Let me go!" I screamed and tried to get loose.

The peacekeeper held me tight and tried to drag me towards the road.

Several times I almost got loose, but he had a tight grip around me.

"I need some help over here!" the peacekeeper screamed, and some other idiots ran towards us. I saw one holding a needle.

"No! Let me go! Let me go!" I screamed. I struggled harder to get loose and waved around with my arms. A peacekeeper took my arm and held it still while the first one put the needle in my arm and I fell to the ground.

* * *

I woke up in a room I didn't recognize. The walls were light blue. One wall was all glass and on the other side the woods flew by. I was lying on a bed with white soft white sheets. In front of me was a wardrobe and to my right stood a bookshelf filled with books.

I slowly sat up and my arm hurt where the peacekeepers had put the needle. I cursed and got up from the bed. I stood by the window and looked out. Damn. I had probably been out quite a while, I didn't recognize the nature. I heard people laughing somewhere on the train, not far from my room.

I decided to go find Jonathan, I needed to talk to him.

When I came closer to the door I heard a weird noise. I looked up. Over the door sat something that looked like a tiny version of the cameras they used at the Reaping. When I moved, the camera followed me. Seriously? They were spying on me? Well, when I thought about it, I couldn't blame them. I was probably a crazy maniac to them.

I went to the door and pulled down the handle, but the door stood still. It was locked. Come on!

"Hello! Let me out!" I called and banged on the door.

No answer. I banged again.

"Come on, let me out!"

One of the empty walls in the room blinked and Emerald's colorful face showed. What the-?

"Phoenix? We understand that you're confused, and probably angry, but you need to listen to me."

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Did you really need to lock me up? It's not like I'm going to jump from a moving train anyway" Actually, that was my plan, but I threw it in the trash when I realized how fast we were moving.

"Oh, we know, we just wanted to make sure you listen to us before we let you move freely on the train."

I sighed again.

"Fine…" I sat down at the bed. "I'm listening"

"As I said, we understand that you're angry, but you need to realize what great honor it is to be chosen as a tribute"

Really? Yeah, sure, it was a great honor to die way before I was supposed to.

"And we are not going to keep you locked up until the games start, but we've put peacekeepers here and there over the entire train, and we have two that will follow you, just in case you get violent."

Oh you have to be kidding me.

"We've also made sure that we will have an extra eye on you after we get off the train"

Great. Just great.

"Okay, I get it, can I go out now?"

Emeralds face disappeared from the wall and the door clicked.

Emerald wasn't lying. Outside my room, two peacekeepers stood on each side of the door. In every room I was in, about 4 peacekeepers stood and followed me with their eyes. And another two peacekeepers followed me wherever I went. The only time they left me alone, was when I had to go to the bathroom. Then they waited outside. Wow, I can't believe they trusted me enough to let me go to the bathroom alone…

When I finally found Jonathan, he was sitting in the diner with Emerald and Kaila Pepper, District 8's mentor . They were talking and laughing like nothing had happened. When Emerald saw me she smiled at me.

"Phoenix! Come and sit down, were just about to eat some dinner" she said.

I was starving, so I decided to talk to Jonathan later, and eat something. And since I was already in the Hunger Games, I told myself to eat whatever I wanted. I might as well enjoy the last meals I would eat in my life.

I sat down at the opposite of Jonathan. He didn't look at me, he didn't talk to me, he pretended like I wasn't there. I actually didn't care at the moment, I just wanted to eat.

Just before the awkward silence got too awkward some people came in to diner, carrying plates with gorgeous, colorful food. They put the food on the table. Emerald had a huge smile on her lips.

"Doesn't it look absolutely delicious?" she said.

"Yeah, it does" I said, practically drooling over everything.

I watched plate after plate, and a couple of pots, being set on the table. There were tons of meets I'd never even heard about before, potatoes presented in several different ways, colorful vegetables, fruits and berries, some kind of yellow strings I'd never seen, in a sauce or mixed with meet, freshly baked bread with spices and soups and stews filling the table. Where would I start?

"Can we start?" I said. The tone in my voice reminded me of when Andrew had said the exact same thing at breakfast that morning. Andrew… My eyes filled with tears, but I pulled them back.

"Of course, take whatever you want" Emerald smiled at me.

I decided to start with the plate right in front of me. Sliced potatoes with some kind of white sauce. I put a large spoonful of it on my plate, and beside I put a piece of meat.

Without thinking stuffed my mouth, and when I looked up, Emerald was staring at me. I glanced at Jonathan. He also had a lot of food on his plate but he sliced small pieces of it with a knife and fork. Kaila was doing the same. And there I sat, pulling of large chunks and stuffing my mouth.

"Sorry" I said while chewing and swallowed.

I tried to copy the others, but soon gave up and stuffed my mouth again. Emerald just shook her head.

* * *

"I'm just going to rest for a while, but how about we meet here in about ten minutes to talk?" Kaila said when I felt like I was about to puke. Rest sounded nice.

"Sounds good" Jonathan said. It was the first thing he had said during the entire dinner. Sure, I hadn't said much either, I was busy eating, but still.

Jonathan got up and started walking towards his room, and I ran after him.

"Jonathan"

No reaction.

"Jonathan!" I pulled his shoulder so that he stopped.

"What?" he said and looked me in the eye.

"Why won't you talk to me? Why won't you even look at me? Why are you pretending like I'm not even here?" I let go of his shoulder.

"I'm talking to you know, aren't I? I talked to you earlier, when we were going to the train, didn't I?"

"Yeah sure, but I started talking to you. You only answered me. And we're not talking, we're arguing. And I don't want to argue, I want to talk." I tried not to sound too angry, I really didn't want to argue any more.

"Well, talk then" Jonathan said and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Even though he crouched a little, he looked huge compared to me, which made it much harder to be angry at him.

"I just want to know why you don't want to talk to me"

"Do we really need to talk about that now?"

"Yes, we do!"

"Fine." He took a step forward, and looked down at me. "First, do you realize how stupid you are when you let Andrew help you steel? Second, do you realize how stupid you are when you promise Andrew neither one of us would get picked, when you know you might not be able to keep that promise? And third, do you realize how stupid you are, when you are when you jump out of a moving vehicle and try to run away when you are a tribute for the hunger games?!"

"Yes, yes and yes. But I don't regret the third one, and I never will. But is that really all? There has to be something that you're not telling me, you can't be that mad for that few reasons!"

"You know what, there is something I'm not telling you, but I don't think you're ready to hear it"

What the-?

* * *

**So, I'm ending the chapter with a small cliffhanger, not the most exciting, but it's something ;) Now, I do have decided Jonathan's secret, but just for fun, what are your ideas? Tell me what you expect to happen, what you want to happen, or what you fear to happen. Xoxo**


	7. Strategy

**Hi guys! It's been a while, but finally the chapter is up! There's a lot of dialogs in this chapter, but I think it's quite good anyway. Also, great news! Well, news and news, but anyway; the next two weeks: no school! I don't remember what it's called in English, but you get to work somewhere for two weeks, to learn about work-life. Something like that. And I only work between 9 and 3, and there's no homework or tests, which means more time to write! :D Anyway, hope you like this chapter, and please review! ;)**

* * *

Jonathan started walking towards his room.

"You don't think I'm ready to hear it?!" I screamed and walked after him.

"No, because you tend to overreact, and you said you didn't want to argue" he said without looking at me.

He had a point. I didn't know what it was, but if he told me, I bet we would argue even more. I would just have to suck it up, and not ask him about it.

"Jonathan…" I said and stopped. He stopped and looked at me.

"What?"

"Can we try to put this aside, and just be friends? I don't want to argue before the games start"

"Sure" Jonathan said. I hinted a smile on his lips before he turned around and went to his room.

I leaned against the wall and slid down until I sat on the floor. My eyes started filling with tears and a smile spread on my face.

* * *

"Phoenix, are you coming? Kaila's waiting for us" Jonathan said through the door.

I was standing by the window, looking out at the trees flowing past me. I thought about mom and dad and Andrew. I wondered how they felt.

"Phoenix?"

I wondered what they did.

"Phoenix?"

I wondered what they were going to do.

"Jyx?"

I smiled at the nickname. He was the only one that called me Jyx. Actually, it was I who came up with it. When I was little I couldn't say my name. So I said Jyx. When I finally learned it, Jonathan would call me Jyx to tease me for not being able to say my own name.

I dried my tears and went out to Jonathan. He smiled when I opened the door, but I saw some worry in his eyes. He probably noticed that I had been crying.

We went to the diner where Kaila was sitting at the table. When she saw us she smiled.

"Hi guys! Please, sit down. Let's talk"

Jonathan and I sat down opposite of Kaila.

"Okay, first of all, we need to talk personality. Now, I don't know you very well, so you'll have to help me for a start, so I can help you decide how you're going to act at the interview and at the trainings, so you'll get more sponsors" Kaila said in her sweet voice.

Yeah right. She probably got to know Jonathan quite well before dinner and me, well, she must have had a perfect picture of me by now.

"I know it's kind of hard to explain your personality, so how about we just talk for a couple of minutes, and I'll probably get something to work with. Sounds good?"

"Yeah, sure" Jonathan said.

"So, are you excited for the games?"

I started talking without thinking.

"No. Why would we be excited to kill kids our age, and then get killed ourselves?"

Kaila looked stunned.

"Erm… Do you have any weapon, or something like that, that you're good at?" Kaila continued.

"We don't really have much to work with in our district. If you don't count a needle and thread" I said.

"Are you any good at getting used to different terrains? You never know what this year's arena is going to be like"

"Yeah, sure. We really have a lot of different nature. We practice surviving in the desert every day, and sometimes we build a house made of snow and live there for a- Aouch!" Jonathan made his point when he kicked me. _Stop talking. _

I sighed._ Fine, I'll be polite. _

"I'm sorry, I get kind of… mean… when I'm tired" I said and yawned.

"That's okay…" Kaila said with an uncomfortable smile. "Have you thought of any strategies?"

I looked at Jonathan and waited for him to answer so I wouldn't say something stupid again.

"Not really. We haven't really thought about the games at all." Jonathan said. I didn't know how much of that that was true when it came to him, but if it would be about only me, it would have been a complete lie. I'd thought about it a lot. Not that I'd come up with anything, but I had thought about it.

"Do you have any ideas?" I asked Kaila.

"Well, in the hunger games, strategy depends a lot on your personality. You also need to think about your personality when it comes to getting sponsors. Aside from being able to kill and not be killed, personality is the most important thing in this competition." She answered, and it wasn't hard to figure out that it was all meant for me. Come on! I can get sponsors! I don't need any help! I think…

"But I'm not saying that you have to be nice to everyone, you just have to have a strong personality. People have to be able to tell what sort of person you are. Aside from that, it's always good to be able to get people to like you. And that's where I'm going to help you. When I know your true personalities I'm going to help you enhance certain good parts of it, and maybe change some things, so you're more interesting."

"Why would we change who we are? If we're supposed to die, can't we die being ourselves?" I said, but then quickly realized what I had said. _Stop it! Think before you talk!_

Kaila sighed and her sweetness disappeared.

"But if you change who you are for now, you might have a bigger chance of actually surviving. You know, those sentences you've said to me, tell me that you're already set on dying. Like you're not even going to try. You might think it's stupid, but with my experience I know that when you're out there, you're going to fight. Because, everybody, even those who has planned out that they're not going to do anything, end up fighting, because they realize that they don't want to die. So I suggest that you try to push away your thoughts about the games, and let me help you."

I was speechless. I didn't know if I thought she was right or wrong. I felt like I was supposed to think that she was wrong, but she actually had a point.

"Maybe we should take a break" Kaila continued and then left the room.

Jonathan and I sat quiet. I didn't know what he was thinking about, but I was still trying to figure out what I thought about her words. Jonathan stood up and left. But I stayed.

_She is right. If I listen to her, maybe I'll have a chance to win. Why haven't I thought about that before? And maybe I have seemed like I'm prepared on dying. But that's just because all of this is stupid! Wait… Didn't she say that everyone who thinks it's stupid end up fighting anyway? Damn… I don't want her to be right! She's on their side! Why else would she do this? No, she is wrong. Or…_

I decided to go talk to Jonathan, but realized I didn't know where his room was. So I went to the corridor with all the rooms and started knocking on doors.

"Phoenix! Can I help you with anything?" Emerald said extremely happy when she had opened the door.

"No, I was just looking for Jonathan…" I said.

"Oh, well it's just down the hall. Last door to the right I think"

"Thanks"

"See you at dinner. Toodles!" Emerald closed the door and I went down the hall to the last door and knocked.

"Jonathan? Open up, I wanna talk" I said.

No wonder I got surprised when a woman opened the door.

"Phoenix…"

"Kaila… Sorry, I was just looking for Jonathan" I said.

"I figured. Hey, I'm sorry I snapped earlier. I just got… so annoyed of your attitude. You seem like you've already prepared on not trying. And that really pisses me off. Because you've probably got some kind of family or friends at home that you want to get home to. And I want to help you get home to them." Kaila said.

I smiled and she closed the door. "I'm sorry too" I said to myself. Damn. She was right. I didn't like it, but she was right.

I went to the door at the opposite side of the corridor to check if that was Jonathan's room. This time, it was him who opened the door.

"Hey" he said and smiled.

"Hey. What are you doing?" I said and went in to his room.

"Nothing, just thinking"

Jonathan lay down on his bed and I sat down next to him.

"About…?"

"Just… mom and dad… and Andrew…"

I glanced at him and couldn't help to notice his eyes had turned a little red. I lay down next to him and looked up in the ceiling.

"And…?"

"Nothing… Just thinking…"

I turned my head towards him.

"Have you come up with anything?"

"Just that I miss them…"

"I mean any strategy…"

"Oh…" He turned his head and looked at me. "No…"

"I think" I turned around until I lay on my stomach. "you could just be you. You don't have to change your personality. You personality is awesome"

Jonathan laughed and turned around on his stomach.

"You personality is pretty awesome too" he said with a smile.


	8. Killing

**I'm soooo sorry I haven't updated in ages! Ironically, since I said at the last chapter that I would have more time to write. But I didn't have any inspiration, and I didn't really know what I wanted to happen. In those two weeks I re-read the first book 2 ½ times (the half time I only read from the train until the games started) and watched the movie like 20 times, to get inspiration. And then there's Christmas, and since I'm quite creative I felt an urge to make present for everyone, so that took a while. Oh, right, Merry Christmas! And Happy New Years! :D**

* * *

"You know, earlier, after dinner, when we argued; one of your guard's almost put you to sleep again. I think you should be a little more careful with what you say and do." Jonathan said and sat up.

"Really? I guess I got a little aggressive. I didn't even remember they were behind me." I looked around in the room. "How come they didn't follow me in here?"

"There's a camera in that corner." Jonathan answered and pointed at the wall.

I went up from the bed and opened the door. There they were, standing on each side of the door.

"Maybe they trust me to talk some sense in to you so you don't crush the window, but not enough to let us be completely by ourselves." Jonathan said.

I closed the door and lay down next to Jonathan again. Our beds were really comfy. Jonathan sat and looked out the window. There were barely any trees outside. Mostly large fields, a couple of houses, and small cliffs.

"When do you think we'll arrive to the Capitol?" I asked.

"Probably tomorrow morning. Sometime after breakfast" Jonathan answered without pulling his eyes from the window.

I looked at him.

"Jonathan?" He didn't react. "You're worried about something"

"No, I'm not" He said, still looking at the window.

"Yes, you are"

"How do you know?"

"I can tell"

"Then, what am I worried about?"

"Well, that's not very hard to guess. We're about to enter a killing-competition"

"I don't get it. Aren't you worried? You walk around acing like you're not worried at all. Like you don't even realize that one of us, but probably both, will never see mom or dad, or Andrew again. You act like you only think about the stupidity of the competition and the capitol, but you don't think about yourself, and your family."

"Ofcourse I'm worried. But I try not to think about it. If I were to act upon all of my thoughts, I would be lying unconscious in a hospital-bed until the games start. But I don't want that. I want to spend this time with you"

Jonathan sighed.

"Come on, let's go do something. It's so boring sitting here, all depressed." I said. I hinted a smile on Jonathans lips before he looked at me.

"What do you want to do then?"

"I don't know, something. Come on!"

I dragged Jonathan out of his room and we went to the lounge. Emerald and Kaila were sitting in the large couch, watching TV. Emerald smiled when she saw me and Jonathan.

"Oh, there you are! Come, sit! We're just about to watch the other district reaping's" Emerald said and tapped next to her on the couch.

We sat down in the couch and put our attention to the TV. Ceasar Flickerman, the host for the Hunger Games, and Claudius Templesmith, the announcer, sat behind a desk, laughing. I noticed that Ceasar's hair was green. His lips too. Wasn't it purple the last time I saw him? Ofcourse, that was 3 years ago.

"How long have Ceasar's hair been green?" I whispered to Jonathan.

"Oh, he changes it each year" Jonathan answered. Ofcourse he does.

"Ooh, here they come!" Emerald said excited.

"_Let us watch the Reapings, and we'll talk a little about them afterwards"_ Ceasar said.

I tried to pay attention, but to be honest, I couldn't care less who I was going to compete with. But I still managed to snap up some of the tributes. District 1 and 2 had all volunteers. In District 5 they had to drag the female tribute to the stage. District 9's tributes were probably a couple, 'cause, well, they kissed. Fortunatly, Mia was not picked in District 10, and in District 12, both tributes were 12-year-olds. More than that I didn't pick up.

"_We have a very interesting mix this year"_ Ceasar said when he and Claudius turned up on the screen again. They chatted a bit about this year's tributes, but I didn't listen until they started talking about me and Jonathan.

"_And District 8, oh my! Siblings! We've had a few siblings over the years, but mostly someone volunteers for at least one of them" _Ceasar started.

"_You think that someone would volunteer in a situation like this, especially when it's District 8! There's been some volunteers in 8, and mostly they volunteered when something like this has happened." _Claudius filled in.

"_Yes, it's very strange! Now, the tributes, you can tell when the girl, Phoenix, walks up to the stage, she is quite nervous, but tries to look strong and confident. And then she looks around the audience, as if she's looking for someone"_

"_Probably her brother"_

"_Exactly. And then Jonathan, he looks confident. Even though he's probably heart broken, you can't see anything of that in his eyes. He walks very strictly, and doesn't even glance at his sister, when she, on the other hand, still wanders with her gaze around the audience."_

"_I really wonder what their strategy is going to be. I mean, they might work together, but then one of them will have to see the other get killed, or worse, they'll have to kill each other in the end. Or they could go separate ways so they won't see when their sibling dies."_

"_Having your sibling in the games with you really is a weak spot that the other tributes probably will take advantage of, so they have to think about that."_

I tried to take in what Ceasar and Claudius had said. _One of them will have to see the other get killed. _The words were spinning around in my head. _They'll have to kill each other in the end. _I looked at Jonathan. _So they won't see when their sibling dies. _Had I really got what this was about? _A weak spot that the other tributes probably will take advantage of. _Had I fully understand what I might have to do? _Kill each other. _Why wasn't Jonathan freaking out about this too? Kill each other?

I rushed off the couch and ran to my room.

"Phoenix? Phoenix!" Jonathan called after me, but I ignored him.

In the corner of my eye I saw my "guards" reacting and running after me. I threw myself in my bed and buried my face in the pillow and thought about it.

I knew I probably would have to kill other kids. But I didn't realize until now, that if I were really unlucky, I would have to watch my brother get killed. Or kill him myself. No. I wouldn't do that. If we were the last two standing, I wouldn't kill him. And he wouldn't kill me. Right? They can't force us.

* * *

**Maybe a little boring chapter, but as I said, no inspiration :P Please review, and also say what you think would be fun to happen, or if you have a suggestion for an interesting character as a tribute, feel free to post them, cause I need some strong personalities! ;)**


	9. Coffee and Lavender

**Gaaahh, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in ages! My inspiration and motivation to write has been completely gone (and school is killing me). I've tried to write sometimes, and I wrote like two sentences, then it just stopped. But today, when I tried to write, it was like BA-BAAM and I manage to actually write. More than two sentences. And right now I have tons of ideas what I want to happen in the arena, I'm just struggling through the "boring" part :P Anyway, if you have ideas, please give them to me, I need all the help I can get. Please review ;)  
**

* * *

I must have fallen asleep, 'cause I woke up when Jonathan knocked on the door.

"Nyx? Are you sleeping?" he asked through the door.

"Not anymore" I whined and turned my face towards the wall.

Jonathan opened the door and sat down next to me.

"Are you okay?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" I asked and looked at him.

"You just ran off earlier"

"I just wanted to think" I sat up and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Have you finished thinking?" He asked and I smiled at his attempt to seem funny.

"I don't know. I just realized that I might have to watch someone kill you"

"What? So you're saying I'll die before you?" he joked.

"I'm serious" I said in a giggle. "I thought a little about our strategy. If we go separate ways, we don't have to watch each other die, but if we work together, we might go quite far"

"Okay… Well, how about we work together, but when one of us is being killed, the other just look another way?"

"Stop joking" I giggled again and punched his shoulder. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine"

"I've only been sleeping half an hour? It feels like a lot longer…" I said with a yawn.

"No, it's nine in the morning. I came to get you for breakfast"

"Oh… So were almost in the Capitol then?"

"Yeah. Are you coming? Emerald will freak out if we don't hurry up" Jonathan said and stood up.

He walked out and I followed him to the diner. Kaila and Emerald had already started eating.

"There you are, why did it take so long?" Emerald complained. Then she looked at me from head to toe with a disgusted face. Probably because I had slept in the clothes I was wearing. But I didn't care at the moment.

"Everything looks really delicious" Jonathan said and Emerald immediately shined up at his enthusiasm.

Everything really looked delicious. There were many different types of bread and berries, eggs served in different ways and thin slices of meats that you were supposed to have on a slice of bread.

"We will be in the capitol right after breakfast, so make sure to hurry up and eat so you'll have time to get ready for the cameras" Emerald said as soon as I sat down.

Are you kidding? Hurry up? I would sit here all day and eat if I could. But she had a point; I didn't want to look sloppy for the cameras. And with cameras, I mean my family. I didn't care about the rest of the country.

* * *

After breakfast I decided to take a shower. There was a quite large bathroom connected to my room. On one of the shower walls was a screen were you could choose how you wanted to shower. Yeah, _how_. I didn't really know what I did when I pressed on the screen, but I somehow managed to get the water running, and afterwards I noticed that my hair smelled like lavender and coffee. You'd think that the shower would prevent mixing smells that really doesn't fit together.

I put my hair in a high ponytail and when I looked for some clothes, all I could find was a purple girly dress, a brown long cardigan and blue tights. I sighed. I couldn't decide what to wear by myself anymore? I put on the clothes and then went out to the dining room.

"I am not wearing this" I said when I found Emerald and Kaila.

"Oh, come on! You'll match your brother" Emerald said way too excited.

I looked suspiciously at Emerald and was about to start complain when Jonathan walked in.

"What kind of outfit is this?" he said and looked at himself. He was wearing a purple shirt, brown cardigan and a pair of jeans.

"No. I don't care if 'we'll get more sponsors if we look alike'" I said with an extremely strong capitol-accent. "I. Am. Not. Wearing. This."

"It's only for an hour, then you'll change for the parade. " Emerald said, still extremely excited.

"Uuuhh!" I freaked out and went past Jonathan and dragged him to his room.

"What is it?" he asked.

I stopped and turned around to look at him.

"I will not be seen in these clothes by anyone that's not on this train even if I die right this second! "

Jonathan bit his lip to stop himself from laughing.

"I'm serious!" I said and hit him on his shoulder.

"Okay… And what do you want me to do about that?" he asked.

"You and I are going to look through every single room on this train until we find our own clothes, before we get to the Capitol."

"Why do I have to help?!" Jonathan complained with a giggle.

"Because A; I'm sure you don't want to be seen in your clothes either, and B; it will go faster if we both look. So come on, I want my clothes back!" I said and stood in the doorway and looked at him.

"Fine" Jonathan sighed and walked after me to the back of the train.

"You take that side and I'll take this" I said and opened the first door at the end of the hall, while Jonathan did the same on the other side.

After walking in to a room full of alive chickens, some people I'd never seen playing cards and Emerald meditating I found a room full of clothes. Not our clothes, but clothes. Close enough.

"Jonathan! Over here!" I shouted at Jonathan.

"Finally! I'm getting sick of walking in while someone's sleeping." Jonathan said and we locked ourselves in the room.

There were a lot of clothes in there. Everything from fancy dresses and suits to sweatpants and simple t-shirts. I pulled out a pair of shorts, a slightly dirty t-shirt and a green jacket. Almost the same outfit I wore at the reaping. Then I made sure Jonathan's clothes were nothing like mine, just to piss off Emerald.

* * *

"What are you wearing?!" Emerald screamed at us when we were about to get off the train.

"Well, we didn't like the clothes you picked out, so we changed" I said and sat down on a small couch and put my feet up, just to annoy Emerald.

"Oh…Well, you don't have time to change now… What are we going to do, you look insane!" Emerald complained at us and pushed down my feet.

"Oh, come on. It's only for an hour, then we'll change for the parade!" I said in the same way Emerald did just a moment ago.

"But…" Emerald complained. She was really panicking. "Oh, fine. But you can at least give a good excuse for your looks, like…"

"That we don't give a damn?" I suggested and put up my feet again.

Emerald glared at me and sighed.

"Say that you… wanted to look like you did at the reaping to make it simple. Something like that, or anything, really" Emerald said and pushed down my feet again.

The train started to slow down, and then everything went dark. Outside the window, light flashed by repeatedly. We were probably going through some kind of tunnel. Soon everything went bright again, and where there had been trees just a while ago, was now tall beautiful buildings and a gigantic crowd of cheering people. As soon as they saw us the cheering got louder. They went crazy for us. Was all of this really that fun for them?

We stepped out of the train and on to a platform where the media waited for us. We had to get our pictures taken, and answer some questions. This time, Jonathan did most of the talking. Which felt quite good, 'cause I couldn't hear a thing over the crowd standing seven feet from us. He was really good with them. He charmed them. They loved him. Every time he opened his mouth, they started cheering even more. And I couldn't help to notice the row of teenage-girls standing in the front, that were cheering extra loud.

After we had stood smiling in front of a camera for what felt like forever, we went to a large building in the center of the city. Jonathan and I were separated, and a peacekeeper led me to a room at the top floor.

"Hi, you must be Phoenix! I'm Lavender, nice to meet you!" I was greeted with a high pitched, excited voice as soon as I opened the door. Lavender was a young woman with extremely long light brown hair. Even in high ponytails, which by the may made her look like a teenager, her hair reached at least to her waist. Most of the Capitol-residents had dyed their skin in a strange color, and Lavender's skin was, ironically, lavender-colored. Her eyes were clear blue, and her hair had highlights in the same bright color.

"Oh my god, what is that smell?!" asked another high pitched voice, belonging to a pale faced woman. Her bright red corkscrews framed her white eyes with 2 inch- red lashes, and on her neck she had a golden flower-tattoo.

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's probably my hair. I didn't understand the shower at the train, so it ended up smelling like…" I started to explain myself, but a third high voice interrupted me.

"…Coffee and lavender? It's amazing! How did you come up with that? It smells incredible together!" The third voice belonged to a man, but with his long wavy light green hair, he could easily be mistaken for a woman. His skin was oddly enough not colored, but quite dark, and his eyes was blue, but they looked natural, unlike Lavender's bright-blue eyes.

"Uhm… Smells like home" I improvised.

"Amazing! Anyway, I'm Valeria" said the red-haired woman "and this is Sable" she continued and pointed at the green haired man.

"We are your prep-team" Sable said and eyed me from head to toe.

"My prep-team?" I asked confused.

"Yes. We prepare you for your stylist, Eunia" Valeria answered and walked around me while examining my body with her white eyes.

"Go put this on and we'll start with waxing" Sable continued and handed me a white robe.

I took the robe and went to the door that said "Dressingroom", where I took off my clothes and put on the thin soft robe.

When I came back out, Lavender, Valeria and Sable had set up a table with strips of paper and a bunch of small tools. I lay down on a long table, and then started an extremely painful, and in my opinion; unnecessary, procedure to get rid of almost every single hair on my body.


	10. The Parade

**Hi guys! Okay, you don't have to read this if you don't want to, I just want to explain something.**

**A while ago, I got a quite long review with some critique. I'm not mad about it, I'm thankful for helping me to get better, I just think it could have sounded a little more helping, instead of just pointing out the bad things. I also think that the person who wrote it could tell who he/she is, instead of posting it as a guest, 'cause it just makes you look like a coward. If you have critique for someone, you should have the guts to tell who you are and stand up for your thoughts.**

**And if the person who wrote the review is reading this, I would like to... excuse my friend, Bloody Hearts here on fanfic, who wrote a review in response. She gets kind of… pissed off, when someone says something that she thinks is wrong to someone she cares about. If that makes sense… BUT, she does have right on some points. It is a fanfiction, so if attendance is mandatory in the original book, that doesn't mean it has to be like that in my story. And I know Phoenix and Jonathan reminds of Katniss and Gale, I actually didn't think of that when I started to write, but I wanted to write about somebody like that, so I am. I know there are some grammar errors, but English is not my first language, and I don't have a Beta. And yeah, the first chapter kind of sucks, but it became how it became, and I have no interest in rewriting it.**

**That was all, I think. I just wanted to explain, even if the writer isn't going to read this. Anyway, just like the last chapter, this may be a little boring, but the next chapter and the chapters after that will be more exciting, promise! Please review ;)**

* * *

After every hair from my body, except my head, was gone, my nails were filed, my brows were plucked and my hair had been washed again, partly to get rid of the coffee- and lavender-smell, my prep-team left me in the big bright room. My stylist was supposed to come any second.

I sat on the table and swung my legs above the floor, and looked around. The floor and walls were covered in white tiles. Almost everything was white, and with the extremely bright lights in the ceiling, my eyes were hurting.

I got up and went closer to one of the walls. A part of it looked strange. It was just as white as the rest of the wall, but it still looked different. I put my fingertip on the wall, and a grey ring appeared on it, just around my finger. I pressed on the wall again, holding my finger still, and the ring appeared again. When I dragged my finger on the wall, the ring followed.

"Having fun?"

The sudden sound surprised. When I turned around someone, my stylist I guessed, stood right in the middle of the room with her arms crossed in front of her chest and a subtle grin on her neon pink lips. Her blonde hair was long and straight, almost down to her waist. She had thick bangs and her hair was covered in pink highlights. She had pale skin, grey eyes, and a pink tattoo on the side of her face, picturing three small symbols.

"Oh, I was just… exploring" I said.

"That's okay. I'm Eunia, your stylist" she said and reached out her hand, decorated with long, pink nails, and I shook it.

"Phoenix" I said.

"I know. I've heard about you. You are the rebel. Or, you're becoming a rebel, perhaps. It was several years ago anyone can remember seeing you at the Reaping. You tried to run away on your way to the train. You get easily annoyed when you talk about the Games, and you seem to argue a lot with your brother" Eunia said and nodded at me to sit down at the table again.

"Well, the Games and everything about the Games is completely idiotic and unnecessary, and my brother and I disagree on some things I think about the Games, which is one of the reason I hate all of this." I said and sat down on the table.

Eunia went to the wall where I just had been standing and pressed on it for a couple of seconds, until it blinked, and then she somehow pulled out pictures of different outfits. One thing that I found funny was that none of them had anything pink in them.

"I do things a little different than the other stylists, and usually let the tribute have something to say about their clothes. So, what do you feel like?" she said, and I looked at the different outfits.

Some of them were actually something that I could wear. Most dresses, but not entirely.

"Uhm… I like 5 and… 17" I said and dangled with my feet.

"Well, I like 8, 14 and 21, so let's look at those first" she said and pressed on the screen again.

I sighed. I really had a big word in this.

8 was a short, flowy, strapless dress with big colorful flowers covering the entire fabric.

14 looked like a blouse and skirt, but it was a dress. The top was white with wide shoulders and small buttons down to the waist, and the short, flowy skirt had a pale orange color. Along the waist was a thin belt in almost the same color as the skirt, but a little darker.

21 was a long, sleek dress in a light green color and with one shoulder. It was simple, only with a flower-looking decoration on the shoulder.

"Do I really need to wear a dress?" I complained. I didn't really like dresses. Sure, they were pretty, but not something for me.

"I would prefer if you had a dress." she answered.

"Soo…?"

"Yes." Eunia went to one of the doors in the room, opened it, and pulled out the three dresses she had shown on the screen. "Here, go try them on, and we'll see how they look on you"

She smiled and gave me the dresses. I sighed, but took them and went to the dressing room.

When I came out in the green dress, Eunia tilted her head and looked suspiciously at me.

"It fits well, but the color doesn't really match your skin. It's a little too light" she said and crossed her arms.

I sighed with relief. This was the dress I liked the least. It was too elegant, too formal.

I changed into the orange and white dress, and this time, Eunia had a big smile on her lips.

"It's gorgeous! The colors are perfect!"

"It's a little tight" I said while almost holding my breath.

"Oh, I'll fix that, that's nothing." She said and waved her hand as if waving away the problem.

When I was going to change into the dress with the flowers, I stayed a little extra in the orange and looked in the mirror. It actually looked kind of good. I somehow liked it. But when I realized what I was thinking about I shook my head to remove the thought. It's just a stupid dress for a stupid occasion.

I changed into the last dress and went out to Eunia.

"Lovely. It's just… you're shoulders. Their so strong. It doesn't really look that good in a strapless dress. I think we'll go with the orange."

"Wait, isn't the parade tonight? I'm not wearing that for the parade, am I?" I asked.

For the parade the tributes always wear something that reflects their district. Since district 8's industry is textiles, our tributes always wear some extreme clothes that really show off what we can do. That dress was a little too simple for the parade, I thought.

"No, you'll wear that for the interview with Ceasar in a couple of days, I just wanted to make sure I have some time to make alterations if needed. Now, you're going to change for the parade" Eunia said and pushed me into the dressing room.

While taking of the dress Eunia knocked on the door and reached in my parade-outfit. It was… simple. Okay, not that simple, but simple if you compare to the outfits the tributes before me had worn. It was a white dress, and when I first looked at it, it reminded of the wedding dresses I had seen on TV. Maybe it was supposed to look like a wedding dress?

It was hard to get on the dress, 'cause it had lots of layers in the skirt, and it was hard to find where my head and arms were going. But I finally got it on, and now it looked even more like wedding dress. The skirt was huge, with all of the different layers. It was ruffled at the waist and was decorated with gems on the chest.

"You look stunning" Eunia said when I came out of the dressing room.

"I feel like I'm about to get married" I said.

"Don't worry about that, you look amazing! Now, wait here, I'm gonna go find Lavender so she can fix your hair, and then you are ready" Eunia left me with a smile.

I was afraid to sit down in case I would ruin the dress. I wasn't even sure I could sit in it, because of the size of the skirt. So I had to stand up and wait, which got tough after a while. The dress actually weighed quite a bit. After a while Lavender came, and a smell I recognized followed her. Coffee and lavender.

"Hi again! You are not going to believe this, but the whole Capitol is talking about your hair. Well, the smell of your hair. Everybody wants to smell like coffee and lavender!" Lavender said excited.

"You met me only half an hour ago..." I said confused and started to breathe through my mouth. It smelled horrible. How did they like this?

"News travel fast here. Anyway, I'm just going to do your hair, and then you are done. So, sit down and we'll get started"

I was able to sit down at a chair. Lavender told me not to worry about the dress, it was made of wrinkle-free fabric apparently. She braided my entire hair in lots of braids. In my opinion I looked ridiculous, but luckily she wasn't done. She sprayed my hair with a spray that smelled awful, and when she undid the braids my hair had turned curly. It looked quite nice, but different than what it usually looked like.

"Now we're done! Let's get you to the parade!"

"Really, no makeup?" I asked.

"Not for this dress. It's… you'll notice"

Lavender led me to Eunia for a quick approval of the hair, then we went with the rest of my prep-team to the bottom floor of the Remake Centre. There I met Jonathan, who was dressed in a white suit. He looked handsome. I turned to Eunia.

"If his suit were black, we would look like we're getting married" I complained.

"Take it easy. Since you're siblings, no one will think anything about you. You both look great" Eunia smiled at me.

"Phoenix! Who's the lucky guy? Seriously, 'cause I want to punch him" Jonathan joked.

"It's not funny. But you're the one who's going to stand next to me" I smiled.

"You've got a point. So, how's you prep-team?" Jonathan asked.

"Uhm… Well, they got really excited when my hair smelled like coffee and lavender, so now the entire Capitol smells like it."

"That's… Good for you. One from my prep-team said she thinks my voice is sexy"

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing.

"That's… Good for you" I giggled.

"Jonathan! You accidently forgot your hat!" a colorful woman called and ran towards us, and then put a white, high hat on Jonathan's head with a smile, and then ran off again.

"Yeah, accidently" Jonathan blinked at me. "I look ridiculous in this"

"I think you look cute" I said and tilted his hat a little.

"Phoenix, Jonathan! Come on, we have to get you ready!" Eunia called us.

We got up on a chariot led by four white horses. The twelve chariots arranged in a line with district 1 in the front, and 12 in the back, which put us somewhere in the middle, but a little further back. Soon loud music started to sound, and the first chariot started to move.

As soon as we got out to the light, I realized that the white fabric in my dress and Jonathan's suit reflected the colors of the light in a beautiful way. It looked like we were glowing with all the colors that existed.

We went through the Capitol streets. Crowds were cheering on both sides of us. It became tougher and tougher to stand in the heavy dress while moving, so eventually I grabbed Jonathan's hand for support. I tried to smile during the entire ride, but I think I forgot sometimes, 'cause in my opinion it wasn't anything to smile for.

After the twenty-minute ride, the chariots arranged in a semi-circle at the City Circle for President Snow's speech. It's the same speech every year. He welcomes the tributes, says a few words about the game and wishes good luck. I don't know if I imagined it, but it felt like Snow looked me right in the eye during every second of his speech.


	11. You're Confident

**Hellooo, everybody! So, in this chapter there's finally **_**some**_** excitement, in the end at least. It's a quite long chapter this time, if you compare to my other chapters, but I wanted to fit a lot in this. And please, if you have the time, write a review, doesn't have to be long, to tell me what you think. It makes me really happy when I get a review, even though I don't get a lot of them. I'll be happy to check out your story in return if you want me to :)**

**Oh, and I realized it's much easier to write in present tense (Is it called that? We don't really learn those kind of words in English-class… :P) than in past tense (Again, is it called that?) so I'm going to switch. Hopefully it won't confuse you, but I will re-write the last chapters when I get the time, just so I won't confuse myself… :P**

* * *

After Snow's speech, the national anthem start to sound and the chariots go in to the Training Centre behind him. Jonathan's and my own costume stop glowing and we step down from the chariot and in to the arms of our prep team-members.

"You looked marvelous!" Sable says and carefully hugs me.

The others agree and give me encouraging pats on the back, and I smile in response.

"You were beautiful" Jonathan whispers in my ear while our prep teams talk about us.

"You didn't look too bad either" I smile at him and put my arm around his back.

"You really outshone everybody! They must be so jealous!" Emerald says.

A couple of feet behind her I see a group of tributes talking and glancing at us. Emerald notice that I'm not looking at her and turns around to see what it is that has my attention.

"That's the Careers. They must be a little suspicious, since district 8 usually don't like to draw that much attention" Emerald explains.

"I'm getting a little tired. Shall we?" Jonathan asks and looks at me.

"Sure" I say without looking away from the tributes that seem to whisper about us.

"We'll see you at dinner!" Emerald waves at us, before we head for the elevator and I stop looking at the Careers.

We walk to the elevator in the other end of the hall. Another pair of tributes, I'm guessing the couple from district 9, are waiting in front of the elevator. The boy whispers something in the girl's ear, and she giggles hysterically.

"Dean, you're terrible!" she giggles and punches him on the shoulder. He smiles and kisses her on the cheek.

Me and Jonathan stand next the couple in front of the elevator, and the doors slide open. The elevator's quite small, but I stand in the corner and squish together the skirt of the dress so the four of us can fit. The girl presses the buttons for both floor 8 and 9.

"You should be more careful with that dress, it's so beautiful" The girl says with a big smile and taps my shoulder.

"I'm never going to wear it again, so why bother? And apparently it's wrinkle free fabric, so it doesn't matter…" I sigh and give her a slight smile in response.

"I'll take it if you don't want it" she laughs.

I look surprised at her.

"You do realize it's a very small chance that you'll get to go home and actually wear it" I say.

"I know. But it's so pretty! I would wear it every second before the games!" she says and shrugs. "I'm Lupia, by the way, and this is Dean. Nice to meet you, Phoenix!"

"How did you-"

"You looked so gorgeous during the parade, so right afterwards I asked Lori, our mentor, who you were" Lupia smiles. "You're the brother, right? Nice to meet you too!"

"Great, I'm now known as 'the brother'" Jonathan whispers in my ear and I giggle.

"Anyway, if you really don't want the dress, I'll come and pick it up later tonight" Lupia says when the elevator stops at Jonathans and my floor.

"Sure…" I say and we walk out of the elevator and onto our apartment-floor.

The room we walk in to is very big. Easily bigger than our entire house at home. To the left is a low dark brown long table surrounded by a large beige couch and a few matching armchairs. Opposite of the couch is a big TV. To the right is a big white table with elegant black wooden chairs around, and over the table hangs a large lamp-like structure covered in white gems. The wall opposite of the elevator is covered in glass, and outside are the large buildings of the Capitol with lights covering every inch of it and cheering people crowded on the streets.

"Lupia sure is one happy girl" Jonathan jokes when the elevator doors close again. He takes off his hat and tosses it onto a small table standing next to the entrance.

"You should be more careful with that hat, it's so beautiful" I say and mimic Lupias high voice.

"I'm never going to wear it again, so why bother?" Jonathan says and mimics my careless tone.

I stick out my tongue at him and he laughs at me.

I walk to the other side of the room and into a small corridor to the right. I then walk into the second door where I find, as Emerald told me, my room.

I take off the white dress and hang it in the wardrobe, before I step in the shower. The screen in this shower is much easier to understand than the one on the train, so I easily wash my hair without making it smell weird. Then I put on a blue tunic and a pair of black pants that I find in the wardrobe, and put my hair in a high ponytail.

"Dinner!" Emerald's voice says through the door. Finally, I'm starving!

"I'll get Jonathan" I say when I walk out of my room, and Emerald answers me with a smile.

I walk down the hall to the last door where Jonathan's room is. I rush in to his room and find him looking through his wardrobe after a shirt.

"Dinner's ready" I say.

"I'll be right there" Jonathan answers and pulls out a grey t-shirt.

"Hurry up! I'm really hungry, and they're not going to let me start if you're not there!" I say and look pleadingly at him.

He grins at me before pulling on the shirt and then follows me out to the dinner table. We sit down with Emerald, Kaila, Eunia, and Jonathan's stylist Rufus.

There is plenty of food served, just like when we ate dinner on the train. I don't know how they do it, but there seems to be even more different kinds of food. This day, they also serve dessert. Pralines, soft cake, cookies, and slimy colorful stuff.

During most of the dinner everyone talks about the parade, and how fantastic we were. Of course, not only me and Jonathan gets all the praise, but Eunia and Rufus too. After all, it's their clothes. They made us fantastic.

"Hello? Phoenix! Anyone here?" Lupia's voice suddenly calls from the elevator.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you were in the middle of dinner" she says when she sees us at the dinner table.

"It's okay. Wait here, I'll go get the dress" I say and excuse myself from the table. I then go to my room and pick up the parade-dress. I carry it out and give it to Lupia.

"Thank you so much!" Lupia says and hugs me tightly.

Right when I'm about to say good bye, Emerald coughs gentle.

"Oh, right. Erm, this is Lupia" I say.

Emerald gives me a strange look from the table.

"District 9" Lupia adds when she notices Emeralds confusion.

"I was just giving her my parade-dress"

"You what?" Emerald snaps at me, but carefully, 'cause, you know, she is Emerald.

"Yeah, she wanted it" I answer.

"But… Aren't you going to keep it?" Emerald asks in a pleading voice.

"Why? I probably won't make it out alive to be able to use it again, and even if I do, I will probably never wear it anyway" I answer.

"But… Oh, fine. Just be careful with it" Emerald asks. Lupia's face immediately light up.

"Of course I will. It's such a beautiful dress, it would be a shame to just let it hang in a wardrobe and never be used" Lupia answers. This seems to relax Emerald a little bit too.

"Thank you, again" Lupia adds and then gives me a quick, but tight, hug again and leaves.

I sit back at the table again and continue to eat, while the other's conversation is now a little more dull.

After dinner we all sit by the TV to watch the recap of the Parade. We actually look quite good. The lights reflecting from the dress hits my face, hence why I didn't need any make-up.

The other tributes don't wear anything extra-ordinary, much like the previous years. I now get a better look at Lupia and Dean. Lupia wears a short dress completely covered in what looks like grain, laid in a beautiful pattern. Dean wears a similar outfit, obviously not a dress, but a shirt and pants.

When the Parade is over I walk back to my room to get some sleep. Instead, I find myself awake almost the entire night, not being able to sleep at all. Finally I doze off, but it feels like I only sleep five minutes before Kaila pounds at my door to pick me up for breakfast. Jonathan, myself and her is supposed to meet for breakfast to talk about our training strategy.

"10 minutes!" she calls behind the door.

I take another quick shower and then get dressed with the clothes that have been laid out for me. Tight dark-blue pants and a black and grey top. Hopefully, Jonathan won't have the same outfit as me again.

I then walk out for breakfast. Immediately I notice Jonathan's tight dark-blue pants and black and grey top, but before I have time to complain Kaila interrupts me.

"Take it easy. All of the tributes are wearing this for training" she says.

I still want to complain, but this makes things a little better.

I sit down and start to pick from the great offer of food.

"So, what are you good at? Do you have any talents that could be useful in the arena?" Kaila then asks.

"I'm almost kind of good with a bow and arrow. I hit sometimes…" I say and start to eat from the variety of eggs.

"And you?" Kaila turns to Jonathan.

"Erm… I don't really know, actually. I've never got the chance to try any weapons" Jonathan answers.

"You're really strong" I suggest, thinking of the times we wrestled when we were kids. I don't think he's become any weaker.

"Yeah" Kaila agrees. "You're quite big, so that could be an advantage in hand-to-hand combat."

I shiver at the thought of Jonathan wrestling down someone and killing him or her with his bare hands.

"Well then, I suggest that you Phoenix, practice archery. But try something else too, like throwing knives, in case you don't get any better. Jonathan, you try different weapons to find something that suits you. Knives are good, if you do get into a lot of hand-to-hand combats. And both of you; don't forget survival skills. It's really important. And get some friends. If you don't really excel in anything, allies are really important." Kaila then puts out. "Now come on, you don't want to be late"

I stuff myself with the remaining food on my plate until I almost feel nauseous, then Jonathan and I walk to the elevator and go down to the bottom floor. We step out of the elevator and in to the gym. It's on the entire floor, which of course is necessary to fit all of the different stations.

There are plenty of different types of weapons, many which I've never seen before. There are obstacle courses and survival stations. Everything you can think of that you need to know when you're fighting for your life.

A few districts have arrived before us. When I look around at the other tributes to see who I can remember from the Parade, Lupia comes over to us with Dean dragging behind her.

"Hi guys! Are you excited for training? I know I am!" she says, and you can tell she's excited. Dean is also smiling like his life depended on it.

I can't really figure them out. They seem so happy. Do they even know what's happening? I remember their Reaping. No one volunteered for them, still they were really happy. You'd think someone would volunteer for one of them, since they're a couple. Then I remember. No one volunteered for me or Jonathan either, even though we're siblings…

I give a subtle smile in response, but Lupia doesn't seem less happy that we don't respond to her question.

"Gather around" a man says and waves at all the tributes to come.

We head over to the man, and the other tributes fill in the row in front of him.

"I'm Juno, the head trainer. Now, during the next four days, you will train here. Most of the stations are individual training, but there will be four compulsory exercises. It's completely forbidden to fight with the other tributes, even for practice. There are trainers at each station if you want to train with a partner. Don't forget the survival skills, you never know how hard it will be to find food, or if there will be poisonous plants, or anything like that"

Juno continues to explain some of the stations, and then releases us.

"I'm gonna go practice some shooting" I say to Jonathan and head off to the archery-station while Jonathan tries knife throwing.

When I get to the station, I'm by myself, but Lupia quickly joins me.

"Are you any good?" Lupia asks me while she examines the different bows.

"Not really" I answer and pick out a bow similar to the one I use for hunting at home. There's no point in lying about my skills, I'm about to show them anyway. "You?"

"I'm decent" Lupia says and finally picks out a bow and a quiver with arrows.

I start to shoot at the target closest to me. I manage to hit all of the arrows on the target, even if they're not that close to the center. When I go to pull out the arrows, I see Lupia shoot at the target next to me. She shoots five arrows right after each other, and each one hits right in the center. I look stunned at her and she gives me a confident smile when she walks forward to collect her arrows, and then drops of the weapon and heads to another station.

She is much tougher than see seems to be. Earlier, she'd seemed so happy, and up in the clouds. Now… With that confident smirk she gave me, I have a whole new image of her. I shake my head as to get rid of the thought, and then go back and shoot again.

I shoot two more arrows before, when I stretch the bow; I feel someone's heavy breath at the back of my head. I stand still, trying not to seem nervous.I know it isn't Jonathan; he wouldn't come up behind me like this. I start to run the tributes I can remember in my head, to see if I can figure out who it is, but the dark, confident voice interrupts me.

"How's it going, cupcake?" It's definitely not Jonathan.

I turn around. Right in front of me stands an athletic boy with blonde hair and dark-blue eyes, who I somehow recognize. He's almost a head taller than me, so it's hard to look confident when I feel so small.

"Phoenix, right?" he continues while picking out a bow. "District 8. You're here with your brother"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, who are you?"

I watch him as he stands in place to shoot.

"Denim Hayes, district 1" he answers with a sigh and shoots and arrow without blinking. Then he walks towards me and looks me in the eye. "You should remember that, cupcake"

"How come?" I ask.

"It could be useful to know the name of your last hope" he answers with a smirk.

I lean forward so that I'm just a couple of inches from him.

"Well then, it's a good thing you know mine_, cupcake_" I say and mimics his voice, then turn around and shoot at the target. I picture his smirking face at the center, and it helps, 'cause I hit it.

Denim laughs subtle and shakes his head.

"You're confident. I like that" he says, and I shoot another arrow at the center.

"Then you probably like yourself very much"

"You're smart too"

"I can't really say that you are"

Denim's smirk disappears and he glances at me while shooting an arrow. It doesn't even hit close to the target, and it's my turn to smirk.

"Maybe a little too confident" he then says and leaves the station.


	12. Trust

Lunch is served in the gym. The second Jonathan and I sit down at a table, Lupia and Dean joins us. Seriously, they are like magnets. Lupia is just as happy as she was earlier, and the confidence I saw in her at the archery-station is gone.

"What have you done so far?" I ask Jonathan, so I won't have to talk to Lupia. I can barely look at her the same way as I used to. Now she seems just as brutal as the careers.

"I've got quite good at throwing knives. Well, not that good, but better than any other weapon." He answers. "You?"

"I've practiced archery all morning. Sometimes it goes really bad, sometimes it goes really well, especially when I picture shooting Denim in his gorgeous face" I tell him and glance at Denim, sitting at another table in front of me.

"Who's Denim?" Jonathan asks and turns around to see who I'm looking at.

"An annoying guy from 1 who visited me earlier. He is going to be my first target in the arena." I say, completely serious.

"The blonde guy?"

"Yeah…" I feel nauseous at the sight of him, so I end up pushing away my plate with stew. "Have you met anyone?"

"I met district 5 when I did some snares. The girl was sitting with a piece of rope and covered it with simple knots, while the boy did some other snares and gave her annoyed glances once in a while. Though, I didn't talk to them." He says and takes the food that I had pushed away.

I search through my memories for anything I can remember about the district 5 tributes. _The Reaping. Some peacekeepers drag a girl up to the stage, after her name has been called and she tried to run away. She's screaming and crying. She collapses on the stage. Her face is red from all the tears. She's begging for her life. The crowd is silent. No one says anything. No one volunteers for her. The only thing you can hear, besides the loud cries of the girl, is the wind, until the announcer reads the name of the male tribute. He walks up and tries not to look at the screaming girl next to him, but you can see his eyes tearing up._

I shake my head to get rid of the picture of the devastated girl. Then, for the first time, I notice the Gamemakers. They're sitting behind a large window in one of the walls. They're being served food and drinks, but still they look at our every movement.

"How long have they been here?" I ask Jonathan and nod at the game makers.

"Since we came here. You haven't noticed them?" Jonathan answers.

"No…" I say and reach for the plate of food Jonathan took from me, since I suddenly got hungry again.

Just when I'm about to continue eating, Juno stands up.

"It's time for the first compulsory exercise. Everyone, follow me, so we can get started as fast as possible." He says and starts to walk towards one of the obstacle courses.

"Damn" I complain and stuff a last spoonful of stew in my mouth. Jonathan grins at me and then pulls me towards the others.

We stand in line at the obstacle course while Juno explains that we will do it one by one, as far as we can, and then we can continue our individual training.

The careers are in the beginning of the line, and go through the obstacles without blinking. Some of the tributes struggle, but still manages quite well. The three 12-year-old tributes complete about half. The girl from 5, whose crying I can't get out of my head, doesn't even try. She starts to climb up the rope ladder, but halfway up she just jumps down again. Jonathan performs almost as good as the Careers. He struggles at some parts, but I can tell he's faking. If he wanted to, he could do just as good, if not better, than the Careers. He's trying to hide his real talents. I don't know why, but he is.

It's my turn. I easily climb up the ladder. Getting myself between two platforms with a rope is a piece of cake. I climb up the climbing wall like it was nothing.

When I'm about to swing myself over a gap with the help of what looks like a ladder that's lying down, I immediately feel that my arms won't make it. I don't have that strength. I'm about to take the shortcut and jump over some obstacles instead, but I see Denim at the end of the course with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his familiar smirk on his face, so instead I take the leap and take on the ladder. I know I'm stupid, but I feel like I have to show him I'm not weak. That "_It could be useful to know the name of your last hope_"-line made me feel like I have to prove something to him.

But I make it. I'm so focused on showing him what I can do, that it's over in a second. Like I skipped time. I just did it. I can't even remember that I did it.

I move on, and finish the rest of the obstacles. When I'm done, I take a moment to catch my breath, and I notice Denim standing with the rest of the Careers. They're whispering and glancing about me. I smile. I really showed him.

"Nice job" Jonathan says when he comes up to me.

"Thanks. You could've done better" I say and look wonderingly at him.

"I know" he smiles at me without explaining. "Lupia's up"

I turn around and see Lupia just starting to climb up the rope ladder. She struggles a bit, but manages. She takes all the shortcuts, and does them half-hearted, and then drops off a little over halfway. I'm not really sure what to think of her.

"That's a tough one" she says and laughs when she reaches Jonathan and me.

"You did great" Dean appears behind her. That's the first words I've heard him say.

"Thanks baby" Lupia smile and gives him a kiss. "Now come on, we have training to do."

"See you soon!" Dean says to me and Jonathan, and we both smile in response.

"Dean's a real chatterbox" I say to Jonathan.

"Yeah… You know, somehow I pictured him with a Capitol-accent" Jonathan says and frowns.

"It's probably just Emerald's voice echoing in your head" I joke and tap his head, and then head off to archery again.

Once again, I'm alone for a while, but then Denim joins me. Again.

"Are you stalking me?" I ask him while I drag an arrow out of the target.

"Why would I do that, cupcake?" he asks.

"I don't know. Maybe you're trying to find my weaknesses, so you'll at least have some defense before I kill you" I answer, but I can't look at him. Then I would just start to laugh at his annoyance with me.

Denim laughs, and I feel him coming up behind me when I pull out the last arrow.

"You should be careful with that confidence of yours. It will probably be the thing that ends you." He says and puts a strand of hair behind my ear.

I feel my cheeks turning red when he touches me. No, wait, what? Why? He's just some annoying, arrogant guy.

"So you're admitting you won't kill me?" I grin at him.

He sighs and then walks away from me to pick a bow. I turn around and walk back to the line where you're supposed to shoot from. Denim stands at the shooting range next to me.

I try to aim at the target, but my hands are shaking. Why now? I don't want to look weak in front of this jackass. I release the arrow. It hits at the edge of the target. I hear Denim laughing at me.

I ignore him and continue shooting, but I can't seem to aim straight. None of the arrows hit near the bulls-eye, and Denim continues to laugh at me.

"You're not as good as you let everyone think you are. Hopefully you'll have time to get better before the Games. Otherwise it'll be quite difficult to keep that brother of yours safe" he says as he walks forward to pull out his arrows.

That makes me snap. While he pulls out his arrows, I shoot my last one at him.

It just scratches the side of his arm and burrow itself right next to the arrow he was about to pull out. He reacts quickly.

"Be careful, cupcake. You don't know who you're dealing with" Denim says as he loads his bow and aims at me. I dodge the arrow, but hear it right next to my ear.

I hide behind the rack of bows while loading my bow. I lean out to shoot at him, but then dodge right back behind it when I feel the sting of pain hitting my cheek. I wipe my cheek with my hand and see the blood on my fingers. Luckily, his arrow just scratched me, just as my arrow scratched his arm.

I quickly lean out again before he has the time to load his bow with another arrow, and fire one towards his chest. He dodges it by a millimeter.

When I'm about to fire the next arrow I see a peacekeeper locking his arms behind his back, and then feel another doing the same to me. Crap.

* * *

I'm let back into training about an hour later, but because I shot an arrow at another tribute, a peacekeeper is following me in the Training Centre. The trainers have decided that I'm not to be trusted without security. Especially not when I'm handling weapons. I notice that Denim has got a shadow as well.

"I thought we talked about this!" Jonathan screams at me when he sees me. You can tell he's angry. "You have to think about what you do!"

"I'm sorry! I just got so mad at him! He's so arrogant and annoying and stupid, and I just… He dragged you into it!" I explain.

"I don't care if he drags me into it! That's not a reason for you to shoot an arrow at him! You don't realize what could happen if you get in too much trouble. There are only so many things they can do to you here, but in the Arena; they could make your life hell!"

"My life was going to be like hell even before I shot an arrow at him! Even before I ran away on the way to the train! You're life's going to be like hell, and you haven't done anything! Everybody's life's are going to be like hell, 'cause that's what the Games are about!" I snap at him. I can see the disappointment in his eyes, and just that almost make me regret what I've done. "I know I was stupid. But I don't regret doing that. He was trying to use me. He was trying to crush me, by using you! And I won't let that happen!

"Then just walk away! You know how easily you snap at people, and what you can do! Next time he comes up to you, just walk away!"

"That won't happen again. The trainers have forbidden us to be at the same station, or talk to each other, or sit at the same table at lunch. If we want to train at the same station we have to take turns" I explain bitterly. Jonathan doesn't answer.

"I have to get back to training" he finally says and walks away.

Damn it. I don't want to argue with him. I just want to get along. I want us to be happy the short time we have left. I run after him.

"Jonathan! Wait! I'm sorry!" I call after him. He stops and turns around.

"You say that you're sorry. You always say that you're sorry, and I always believe you, but then you do something stupid again. I don't know if I can trust you this time."

* * *

**Some excitement in this chapter, hopefully you liked it! And I'm sorry for the really horrible explanations of the obstacle course, hopefully you understood...**

**I didn't really plan for Phoenix and Jonathan to fight, again. It just happend. When I was writing about after Phoenix's and Denim's fight, I first thought that Jonathan was just going to be mad at Phoenix, and then get over it. But as I wrote, they just kept arguing and the whole thing turned into... I don't know... Haha, what can I say, I don't choose what's going to happen, I just go with what the characters do. But I do feel bad for them, they just argue all the time...  
**

**And I'm really proud of myself for not waiting like, a month before updating. What was it, like a week since the last chapter? Yay! x)**

**Please review!**


	13. A Million Pieces

After the training of the day I stomp in to my room. I start to scream and I throw things around me. Then the tears start flowing.

I don't want to argue with Jonathan all the time! I couldn't help it, Denim just crossed the line! Why doesn't Jonathan get that?! These stupid Games have destroyed our relationship. It's in a million pieces. It doesn't exist anymore. It's in a million pieces. We're not brother and sister anymore. We're strangers. Everything, my entire world has shattered_. A million pieces._

After the wardrobe's lying in the middle of the floor, all of the clothes are spread out, and a lamp is in pieces, I throw myself on my bed, the only thing that is un-touched. The pillow tones down my screams, but after a while, when it has turned soaking wet, I cry out in the open.

"Phoenix!" Emerald calls from outside the room. "Quiet down, we've had complaints from four floors down!"

"I don't care! I'm about to die anyway, can't they spare me a few minutes to cry?!"I scream at Emerald.

"They did! It's been two hours! Now can you please quiet down and let the other tributes enjoy their free-time without hearing a desperate, crying girl?!" she answers, and when she leaves I hear her mumble "They'll have enough of that during the Games"

I pick up a piece of the lamp and throw it at the door, and it shatters into more tiny pieces, but I stop crying. At least out loud.

Finally I dry off my wet cheeks and walk out to the dinner table. It's filled with food, but no one sits at it. The only person around is an Avox standing by a wall.

"Where is everybody?" I ask the Avox, before I remember that he can't answer me. I look at the clock hanging above him. It's almost 10. "Have they already eaten?" I ask instead, and the Avox nods.

I quickly turn my head when I hear a distant laugh, and then I follow it to the TV-area. There I find Emerald, Kaila, Eunia, Rufus, and Jonathan. Everyone. Except me.

"Why didn't you get me to dinner?" I ask, and right at cue my stomach growls.

"We didn't want to disturb you. During your… crying" Emerald answers, but when she gets her eyes on me she stops and just stares. I can't blame her. My face must be all red and shiny from the tears, my eyes must be all bloodshot, and my hair's probably all tangled and weird. But who cares right now?

I throw an eye at Jonathan. He has turned away from me and just looks at the TV. Our relationship is destroyed. _It's in a million pieces._

"Now, go eat something, take a shower and then go to sleep. You need it" Emerald continues and pats my shoulder.

I sigh, but because I don't really want to talk to any of them, I go and eat dinner and decide to then take a shower and go to sleep. When I come back to my room; everything is cleaned up, and everything stands where it did before my explosion, except for a note lying on my pillow. _Next time you want to break something; There is a lovely glass-sculpture in Emerald's room. Last door down the hall. Also, try not to punch a hole in the wall if you get mad again, others will live here after you ;)_

On training the next day I don't talk to Jonathan. I don't train at the same stations as he, I don't stand close to him in line at the compulsory exercise, and I don't sit close to him at lunch. I barely look at him. I want to. I gather courage all the time to walk up to him and talk to him, but I don't. I think it's because I'm scared that he will reject me. Apparently, I would rather not talk to him at all, than be rejected by him when I try to talk to him. _A million pieces._

I practice some sword-fighting, and other weird knife-looking weapons. It doesn't go that good, so I stick to archery, cause I'm actually getting better at that. I also practice doing snares and I learn to recognize edible plants and fruits. Though when I leave the latter station, I can't seem to remember anything of what I've learned. Jonathan has occupied my mind.

Lupia doesn't come up to talk to me anymore. She only smiles at me when we look at each other, but that's all. She practices archery for a couple of minutes when I'm there too, but then she doesn't even glance at me. I can't figure her out, and it frustrates me.

When I show up at dinner, Jonathan doesn't. Of course. The mood is dull, but Emerald tries to keep it up.

After lunch on the third day, it's time for our private training-sessions in front of the Game makers. All of the tributes are gathered outside the gymnasium. Then they call us out, one by one, starting with District 1, which means that Denim gets called out first. Then his district-partner goes. She almost looks like she could live in the Capitol, with her poofy curly hair with red highlights, and ice-blue eyes, that doesn't look natural at all. I also notice that she looks much younger than the other Careers. She couldn't be 18. She looks too innocent, too child-ish. She looks about my age. Which is weird, 'cause the Career-districts always have a bunch of 18-year-olds that compete for the place in the Games. Why would it be different this year? I try to remember anything from their Reaping, but my mind's blank.

After a while it's Jonathans turn. I watch him as he walks in to the gym. I want him to look at me too. I want to smile at him and wish him good luck. But he doesn't look back. He just walks in. _A million pieces._

Then my name gets called out, and I head in to the gym. The Game Makers are still behind the glass wall and they study me as I walk towards the bow and arrows. I pick up the same bow I'd used in training and a quiver with arrows. Then I stand in place in front of a target, at the same distance I'd practiced at. I put an arrow in place, but right when I'm about to release the string; I lower the bow and take a few steps back. It can't be that much harder, right?

I take aim at the target again, and even though I only backed up a few steps, the target feels a mile away. But I can't walk forward again, that will make me look like a coward. So I let the arrow go, and it hits the floor a few feet in front of the target.

I step forward again at my usual distance I shoot, but I hit at the edge of the target. I shoot several times, and every time the shot is filled with more and more frustration because I can't hit the bulls-eye. I almost break into tears. Why can't I hit, now that it's the most important that I do? I shoot one more time, and the arrow hits at the exact same place it hit two days ago, at training. Denim's words echo in my head and I fill with rage. _You're not as good as you let everyone think you are. Hopefully you'll have time to get better before the Games. Otherwise it'll be quite difficult to keep that brother of yours safe._

I aim at the target again, now picturing Denim, and I shoot him in his throat before he has time to finish his sentence. I continue to shoot the last four arrows in my quiver, and they all hit the bulls-eye. I smile at my success and look up at the Game makers, but I have lost their attention. Probably during my series of crappy shots. They have stopped following my moves and now sit and talk to each other. I bite my lip to stop myself from screaming or saying anything stupid. I don't want to make things worse with Jonathan, so I just leave my bow and go to make some snares until the Game makers tell me to leave.

I head back to our floor and go straight to Emeralds room. Luckily, she isn't there, so I scan the room until I find it. Standing on her bedside table is a large chunk of glass with strokes of color inside it, shaped into a swan with outstretched wings.

I grab it, go stand in the doorway and then throw it onto the floor so it smashes into tiny pieces of colorful glass. _A million pieces._ Then I go back to my room and fall asleep on my bed.

I wake up a while later when Kaila picks me up for dinner. When I get to the dinner table, everyone is there except Emerald. And Jonathan. _A million pieces._

"Where's Emerald?" I ask and sit down at the table. She's always on time. Why not now?

"Oh, she's coming. She just needed to go to the restroom." Kaila answers, and right then Emerald comes in, her face bright red.

"Who broke the 20,000$ glass-swan that stood in my room?!" she bursts out. I've never seen her this mad, ever. She's always so happy, and sees everything from the bright side.

"Is it broken?" Kaila asks.

"Yes! The whole floor is covered in tiny glass-pieces, and the swan isn't on its place on my bed side-table" Emeralds rage changes to sadness. She starts to sob and sits down besides Kaila, who starts to rub Emeralds back to comfort her.

"Who would do such a thing?" Eunia adds in.

"I can't believe someone would actually break my precious swan!" Emerald continues to sob and I hold my breath. Precious? Did I just break something not only worth 20,000$, but something that was personally precious to her?

"What do you mean with precious?" I ask and sound compassionate.

"It's been in my room every year I've been an escort for the Hunger Games! It contains memories" she sobs. I sigh. Damn. A family heirloom would've been funnier…

"What if it's some kind of sign from the universe? What if it means that this will be my last year as an escort?!" Emerald cries and sounds really worried.

I bite my lip so I won't start to laugh, but it doesn't really help, so I turn away my head and pretend to cough until I calm down and am able to look at Emerald again without giggling.

"Oh no, don't worry! It was probably just an Avox who tripped or something like that" Kaila comforts.

"Well then I want him or her fired!" Emerald says.

"We can look at the surveillance tapes after they announce the scores tonight, if you want" Kaila suggests and I freeze. Surveillance tapes? I thought there were only cameras in my room! Then I remember the camera in Jonathan's room. Have there always been cameras in every room, or is it only this year when I'm here? Cause if you haven't missed it, I'm insane.

Emerald's sobbing quiets down a bit. "That sounds good"

"Great. Now let's not think about that anymore and have some dinner" Kaila says and waves at an Avox, and the food gets carried in.

I can barely eat at dinner. All I think about are the stupid surveillance tapes. It's not really anything to be nervous about, it's not like they can punish me for breaking a glass sculpture. But I still can't help thinking about it.

When everyone else is full, we go to the TV to watch the training scores. Jonathan is there, watching old Games.

"It's time to watch the scores!" Emerald says excited, her worry about the swan completely gone.

Jonathan shuts of the video and the Capitols seal appears on the screen along with the anthem. We all sit down, and when I sit down next to Jonathan in the couch he gets up and sits in a chair instead. _A million pieces._

Then Ceasar Flickerman in his green hair and blinding white smile turns up instead of the seal. He doesn't say much before he starts to announce the scores.

Denim gets a 10. I bet he's mad that he didn't get a 12. None of the other Careers gets higher than 10. Jonathan also scores a 10. A 10! What did he do in there? Everyone congratulates him. He smiles. Even when no one's looking at him anymore, except me then, I notice he looks satisfied.

My face appears on the screen. Ceasar reads my name. The number 2 appears under my face. I throw the vase with flowers that stands beside me on my picture. The TV turns black. _A million pieces._

* * *

**Ohmygod I feel so proud. I updated after a week again :')**

**Not the most exciting chapter, cause it didn't happen a lot, I just wanted to get the training over with. Hope you liked it anyway! Only one or two more chapters, then it's time for the arena! Yay! Please review! :)**


	14. Coaching

A shrill scream escapes from Emerald's lips. I stay seated in the couch, my eyes locked at where my training score stood just a second ago.

"What are you doing?!" Kaila bursts out.

"I threw a vase at the TV, if you didn't notice" I answer toneless, not moving my eyes a millimeter. Jonathan gets up and leaves the room, and I glance slightly at him when he walks away, before once again staring at the broken TV.

"Why?!" Kaila asks and waves at an Avox who quickly comes over and start to sweep up the pieces of the vase.

"Because I got a 2! A 2! I deserve more than a 2!" I pout and bring my legs up to my chin.

"That's not a reason to break the TV!" Kaila tells me.

"What did you do at your session, anyway?" Eunia asks. I completely forgot she's here. She's so quiet.

"I did some archery. At first, when I had their attention, it went really bad, but when I did incredible - and I'm not joking; I was awesome - they weren't even looking!" I complain. "And by the way, the score shouldn't only reflect the private sessions, but the training as well, and I did really go-!"

"Where did Jonathan go?" Eunia interrupts me.

"He left. After he realized that I didn't care about breaking the TV" I mutter and my eyes fill with tears.

I quickly dry off my eyes with the back of my hand and then leave the others and go to my room. There I fall asleep immediately.

Kaila wakes me up the next morning. During almost the entire day she and Emerald will coach me and Jonathan for the interview. Does it really take an entire day to practice for an interview that lasts three minutes?

But first; Breakfast. Emerald is oddly enough very quiet and looks… Different. I don't know how to explain it, but she looks as if she hasn't slept for a week and is hallucinating like a crazy person. Every time I talk to her, she answers with a low squeaky voice. She must have found out I broke her swan.

Before we start with the coaching, we gather in front of the _new_ TV to watch the other tributes scores. Lupia and Dean both get 6's. Weird, confusing people. I'm not even sure I should call them people. Weird, confusing creatures that looks like humans, that I can't wrap my head around.

Up until lunch I'm scheduled to be coached by Kaila, afterwards I get to spend my time with Emerald. And vice versa for Jonathan. He had apparently asked for us to be coached separately. Of course.

I sit down at the dinner table where Kaila's already sitting, and interrupts her before she has the time to start talking.

"Did you watch the surveillance tapes from yesterday?" I ask.

"Yes. Emerald's shocked, but she doesn't want to say anything about it. She's obviously furious with you for breaking her swan, but when we watched it she just said that it was nothing and that you have enough to think about anyway" Kaila says carelessly. "Now, can we start?"

"Sure" I say and lean backwards.

"The interview's tomorrow. What do you think about it?" she asks with a slight sigh. She already knows about my negativity about this, she doesn't really need to ask.

"I'm having trouble with figuring out why we even have interviews. Is it because the capitol-residents want to know more about us so they know who seems more fun to sponsor?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's kind of it. Most of them want to know you as persons. They want to know who to root for before the Games start. They want to find a favorite. They want to know who seems more fun to sponsor" Kaila simply answers. "Some tributes actually make up stories so that people will feel more sorry for them and give them more gifts. Anything for you?"

"Nah, I will just forget it and then twist the story into something extremely unbelievable." I explain.

"Okay. Do you have any true story that will make people feel sorry for you?"

"I don't know really. I have a happy family, both my parents are alive. I have no sad story involving friends, no dying pets. My family's poor, but we survive. Nothing serious" I say, leaving out Mia and me, hunting in district 10, not thinking that it will make any difference. Plus, if I get out alive and the capitol knows that I've been hunting in another district and selling it illegally, I'm so dead.

"So, I guess we should work with you and your brother. Got any other siblings?"

"Yeah. Another brother." I ask and feel my eyes starting to fill with tears. "He's 10"

"We can work with that" Kaila suggests and leans forwards.

"Sure" I answer and wipe off the tears from my eyes.

"Are you close?" she asks.

"Yes. Extremely. We talk all the time. He listens when I have problems, even if he doesn't really understand them. I comfort him when he has problems. I help him with homework. He thinks he can help me with my homework." I say, and feel my eyes tearing up again. I consider telling her that he even helps me when I do illegal things, but decide to leave that out. "Even if we get on each other's nerves sometimes, we love each other."

"He must have been devastated when you and Jonathan left"

"He was. Earlier I had promised him that neither one of us would get chosen for the Games. And since I broke that promise pretty bad, one of us have to come home" I tell her. The tears start to run down my cheeks, but now I don't bother with wiping them off, 'cause I know they will continue coming."

"How about we take a break?" Kaila asks, noticing how Andrew is a really sensitive subject for me.

I just nod, and Kaila leaves me alone at the table where I sit and wait for the tears to dry out.

Kaila comes back a few minutes later, and we talk about my attitude. I need to tone it down, otherwise the audience will think I'm hostile, and then no one will sponsor me. I agree to try and not reveal my thoughts about the people that could save me. We practice. Kaila asks me questions, I answer them. I actually do quite well.

A few hours later we eat lunch, and then I meet Emerald by the TV. When she sees me she closes her eyes as if she's thinking, and then opens them and greets me with her usual smile.

"So, what do we do?" I ask and thud down in the couch. Emerald sighs and shakes her head.

"You are going to get dressed" she answers and pushes me to a door I haven't noticed before, but it's only a bathroom.

Inside hangs a dress similar to the one I'll be wearing on the interview, but it's not the same. It's just white and it doesn't feel as smooth against my skin as the real did. The only similarity is the model of the dress.

I walk out and meet Emerald holding a pair of ridiculously high heeled shoes.

I reluctantly take the shoes and put them on, and then thud down on the couch again. Emerald sighs. Again.

"No. Get up" Emerald says and I get up, astonished of her new-found stubbornness. She brushes down the skirt of my dress and corrects the collar before she continues.

"Since your dress is quite short, you need to think of how you sit. Slowly sit down, and make sure the skirt lies flat underneath you. Then, you can sit cross-legged, but if you don't, your knees must always have contact, and your feet should be placed underneath the chair. Then place your hands gracefully in your lap" Emerald says and shows the movements while she explains them. "Now, your turn"

I sigh, but sit down and follow her steps exactly. You know, so I won't have to do it again. It's kind of hard with the heels on, but I manage.

"Quite good, given it's the first time. Luckily we have more time, but let's move on and we can continue with that later"

We go on for many more hours. I get to practice walking in my ridiculous heels, we work on my posture and I learn how to sound nice when I talk. Emerald thinks that even if I might throw out an insult, I may as well sound pleasant.

We're finished before dinner. Emerald would like more time with me, but she thinks that it will be unfair for the other tributes if I get more coaching-time. I'm glad she's so determined that everything should be equal for all.

I get an hour to clean up before dinner, but I just change into a pair of soft baggy pants and a loose shirt and then take a nap.

I wake up when it's dark outside, and dinner must have been several hours ago. The lights are off in the corridor and the dining room, and no one's up. When I'm about to go back to my room I hear something from the TV-area. I go closer and see lights from the TV. It's Jonathan.

I want him to understand me so bad. I don't want him to walk away every time I try to explain, every time I do or say something stupid, every time I try to do good.

I decide to not back down and go talk to him, but at the same time I don't want to be too pushy, so I just sit down on the couch without saying anything.

Jonathan doesn't look at me or say anything, but at least he doesn't walk away.

"What are you watching?" I ask, starting off easy.

"The Reapings" he answers without looking away from the TV.

I look at screen. I think he's at District 4, cause you can see the glittering ocean in the background. Sure, you can see the ocean from other districts than 4, but there the water seems more blue and glistening than anywhere else.

"_Coral Galloway_" says the escort. The screen shows a girl, maybe 17 or 18. She sighs as if she's relieved, and then walks up to the stage as if it's nothing. Oddly enough, no one volunteers. It's district 4, surely someone would volunteer…

"_Zane Fairbarn_" the escort then announces and a boy, a bit younger than the girl, walks up to the stage.

They shake hands with each other and are then led into the building behind them.

Then comes district 5. The crying girl. The escort talks about the Games and then shows the well-known film, before she picks the tributes.

"_Meggie Younge_" The familiar scene plays up with the devastated tribute that tries to run away, and the boy, _Isaac Plaiden_, who tries his best to not burst into tears.

We finish watching the Reaping's without saying anything to the other. I glance at Jonathan once in a while, but he seems concentrated on the TV. When they are over Jonathan turns it off and we sit silent in the dark. After a while Jonathan turns against me and breaks the silence.

"I'm sorry" he says, and even though I can't see his face in the dark, I hear on his voice that he is trying not to cry.

"What for?" I ask, hoping that it's only about Denim. But something inside me says that it's something else. Something more serious.

Jonathan sits quiet, but after a minute or two he takes a deep breath.

"How could I know that you were going to get picked? I thought someone had turned themselves in. But I shouldn't have taken the chance, it was stupid. But I didn't realize that until it was too late. I thought-" he says, but I interrupt him.

"What are you talking about?" I say, clearly confused.

When he answers, his voice breaks, but I clearly hear his answer.

"I didn't get picked for the Games. I volunteered."

* * *

**How about that for a secret? Hope you liked this chapter, I did at least. Next chapter will be the interviews, and then comes the Arena! :D**

**Please review, I know people are actually reading this, but I barely get any reviews, and it's those, not the number of reader's I've got, that makes me happy. So make my day and tell me what you think in a short review, thanks! ;)**


	15. The Interviews

"Volunteered?!" I scream out, completely forgetting that it's the middle of the night and everybody's sleeping. "But your name got drawn at the Reaping! You couldn't have volunteered!"

"But I did. You would've known this if you'd watched the Capitol announcements last year." Jonathan sighs and tells the story. "In the Career Districts, they had so many volunteers every year, they decided to do something about it, so that the Reaping's wouldn't be so complicated. They decided that everyone who wanted to volunteer could turn themselves in before the Games, and they would decide the tributes before the Reaping. But because in some districts there aren't any volunteers, they decided to show the Reaping's as usual, also to keep the suspense for the audience. The residents of the Capitol don't know about this, they think that everything is the way it always has been. Anyway, I turned myself in a few months ago. I've been training after school every day since this was decided, because I planned to turn myself in. We needed the money, and I thought that if I trained every day, I could do it. Come home. And we would be able to live our lives without you stealing. I was the only one who volunteered, so I became the tribute. I somehow thought there would be some female volunteers too, so they wouldn't have to draw a name. But there weren't. So they chose you."

Why would he do this? We were doing fine! We didn't need the extra money, we managed to survive! This is the most stupid thing he has ever done! Is he insane? What was he thinking?!

I can't come up with anything to say to him. I want to scream at him, but I can't. I'm speechless.

"Goodnight" I say, get up, and leave.

I go to my room and lay down on my bed. Then I just lay there. I can't do anything else. I want to cry, but the tears don't come. I want to scream, but no sounds can escape from my lips. I want to pound on the walls, but my arms can't move. I try to think everything through, but the thoughts just tangle up in my mind, and I can't separate fantasy from reality.

The entire night I just lay there, unable to think, speak, scream, cry or do anything. I lay there and stare in the ceiling. After I while I think I hears voices outside my room, but then I realize it's in my head. When there actually are voices outside my room, my head shuts them out, and all I hear is a dull mumbling.

Time goes by. No one disturbs me. The voices in my head are always there. Sometimes they're quiet, sometimes they scream. The voices outside my room come and go. Eventually someone knocks carefully on my door, and the voices in my head disappear.

"Jyx? Can I come in?"

I don't answer. I want him to come in, I want to be with my brother. But at the same time I don't want to talk to him. I don't want to hear his explanation.

The door opens and Jonathan walks in.

"Hey. How are you?" he asks and sits down on the edge of my bed. I feel a tear escaping my eye. I quickly dry it off and take a deep breath so I won't start to cry.

"I'm fine" I answer and turn around and face the wall.

"Worst lie ever" Jonathan says, and I can't help to smile. I turn around to face him.

"I can't believe you did that" I say and look at him.

"I know that it was stupid. But you have to see it from my view. We could barely live, so you ran around and stole from the rich. I had a full year to train, and since I would be one of the oldest, I thought I could do it. And if I wouldn't make it back home, you would've had one less person to feed." He explains. I sigh. He does have a point.

"Sure. But try to see it from my view. Or Andrews. Or mom and dads. You would go away. How would we suppose to know that you had been training for a year? We would be frightened. And if you didn't come home, sure, we would've had one less person to feed, but we would've been devastated. We would barely be able to live because we would miss you so much." I try to convince him.

"You're right. I realized that it was a mistake the second I woke up the morning of the Reaping." He tells me and I sit up next to him and lean my head on his shoulder. "It just seemed like a good idea when I thought of it"

"You're an idiot" I say.

"I know" he answers.

"What time is it?" I ask.

"It's almost lunch."

"I've missed a lot of meals the last few days" I say and get up to get some clothes.

"At least you've got more sleep" Jonathans says and gets up to leave.

"I wish" I say and throw a pillow at Jonathan as a sign for him to leave. He laughs in response and then leaves.

I pick out a clean pair of soft pants and change my shirt and then go to the dining room. Eunia greets me with a smile.

"After lunch we will start prepping you for the interview. Are you ready?" she asks and lays an arm around my shoulders, and leads me to the table,

"Not really" I yawn and rub my eyes.

"Get her some coffee" Eunia says to one of the Avoxes.

The Avox disappears into the kitchen and then brings out a jug with a hot steaming liquid. Eunia pulls out a chair for me and I sit down. The Avox pours the drink in a cup in front of me.

"Drink that, it'll help you feel better" Eunia says and sits down beside me.

I take the steaming cup and carefully drink some. It tastes awful, but just in case it actually will make me feel better, I keep drinking. It doesn't really help me feel better, but I feel less tired.

Everyone else shows up and we eat lunch. Afterwards I go with Eunia and meet my prep-team in the room where I first met them.

Lavender starts to curl my hair while Sable paints my nails, and Valeria checks how different colors of make-up matches my skin.

It feels like they've been working on me for a decade, but they did a great job. Soft curls drape down to my chest and my nails are glittery peach-colored. My make-up is very simple with light pink lips, soft pink cheeks, and a peach shadow above my eyes. I've never wore make-up. I think it's ugly. Unnatural. And something I can't afford. In my opinion, I look like a Capitol-freak in it, but in their eyes it's probably nothing.

I get dressed in the orange and white dress that I had tried a couple of days earlier and then we leave and meet Jonathan and Rufus and his prep-team by the elevator. Jonathan is dressed in a black t-shirt, dark blue fancy jacket and black pants. Quite simple. Everyone else has also dressed up for the occasion, even if they won't be on TV.

Jonathan actually smiles at me when I see him. I smile back, even though I haven't really forgiven him.

We ride the elevator to the bottom floor and step out. I recognize the hall we're now in, and then I realize we were here after the parade. Everything looks the same, except everyone in here has less extravagant clothes than the last time, and there are no chariots or horses.

All the tributes line up at the doors and the others take their places in the audience. Then we are led out to the stage and take our seats under a big arc at the back of the stage, behind Ceasar Flickerman and an empty chair.

In front of the stage is the City Circle, where we stood at the end of the Parade. But it's now filled with people who are here to see our interviews. The crowd continues a long way back, and I can't even imagine how the ones in the back have it. They probably can't even see us. The only thing they see is probably the luminous lighting on the stage.

Ceasar welcomes everybody. He talks about how exciting these Games will be, and how difficult it will be to choose a favorite among all the wonderful tributes. Then he introduces the first tribute, the girl from 1. I find out than I was right. She isn't 18. She's only 16. Which is very strange. Surely there must have been some 18-year old girls that wanted to participate. Right?

I notice Ceasar's effort in trying to make everyone feel good. He makes the most nervous tributes calm down. He helps out. He succeeds. Very well. Cause if you look at the whole picture, no one really seems nervous, or sad, or anything like that. Meggie, the crying girl, doesn't seem sad at all. If you look closely, you can tell that she's still as devastated as she was at the Reaping. But Ceasar makes it fade away. You don't really think about it.

I hear my name and walk up to the empty chair besides Ceasar. I smile and sit down like Emerald taught me, with my feet placed under the chair and my hands in my lap.

"Phoenix! How are you?" Ceasar asks with his blinding smile.

"I'm fine, considering everything that's going on" I try my best to sound pleasant, but it doesn't really work. Ceasar laughs.

"Well, that's great. First of all, how do you feel about your 2 at training?" he asks.

"I'm furious with it. I don't get it. I did good at training. It wasn't like I did bad at everything, I did really good. I was one of the best in all of the compulsory exercises, and I managed to do all the stations at least quite well. I think I deserve more than a 2."

"Of course you do! But, the scores aren't everything. We've had a winner that got a 3, that's a very good example that the scores doesn't necessarily tell how good you are. Right?" Ceasar turns to the audience, and they agree. "Now, while were on training, I've heard that you got in to a little trouble with Denim, from District 1. How about you tell us about it?"

"Oh, that was nothing. Just a dispute, nothing serious" I answer to try to change the subject. It doesn't really work.

"Now, now, there must have been something a little more serious. You and Denim were shooting like you were in the Arena! Like it depended on your life!" Ceasar then says, and on the screens I see Denim with his annoying smirk. I decide to tell what happened.

"I was practicing on the shooting-range when Denim came up to me. I couldn't manage to shoot straight, so he laughed at me. Then he said that it was lucky that I would have more time to train, otherwise it would be hard to keep my brother safe. And that made me snap. So I shot an arrow at him" I tell. The crowd sighs and shows me sympathy.

"Was it because he spoke about your brother; Jonathan?" Ceasar asks.

"Yes. It's difficult enough to have him here with me. I couldn't stand Denim practically threatening him."

"How do you feel about being here with your brother?" Ceasar then asks .

I feel my eyes tearing up, so I close them for a second to force the tears back in, before I answer.

"How do you think it feels?" I begin and the crowd goes dead silent. "I'm heartbroken, of course. This wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to just live a normal life at home. I mean, even if I win, I won't be happy. I won't be able to live my life when I get back, because then I won't have my brother anymore" I hear the crowd sighing and feeling sorry for me. Again.

"And I've also heard that you have another brother back home. He's 10 years, right?" Ceasar continues. I curse him for going there, but I answer the question. People might feel sorrier for me.

"Yes. Andrew. He was also heartbroken when we left. I mean, he's going to lose at least one sibling. Probably two. He was furious with me." I explain and close my eyes again when I feel the tears coming back.

"Why was he angry?" Ceasar asks and grabs my hand, as to comfort me.

"Because I had promised him that I wouldn't get picked for the Games. That neither me nor Jonathan would get picked. And we both were. And since I've taught him that you never, ever, break a promise, he was angry. Because I broke one." I tell and take a deep breath. The crowd shows compassion for me, and I even hear someone starting to cry.

"So you must feel like you have to come home, because you broke your promise." Ceasar says.

"Well, yes. But the problem is that if I come home, Jonathan won't. If Jonathan comes home, I won't. So I can't really make up for it. But at least it's better that one of us come home than if neither do." I say, just before the buzzer goes off, that tells that my time is up.

"That's too bad, we're out of time. But good luck in the games!" Ceasar says and stands up, and I follow. "Ladies and Gentlemen, from District 8, Phoenix Abbot!"

I smile for the audience before I go back to my seat in the back. Then it's Jonathans turn.

"Jonathan! That was a quite a story from your sister. How do you feel? Do you miss Andrew?" Ceasar asks, and on a big screen I see Jonathan sigh.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I miss him, he's my brother. I really hope that me or Phoenix will get back home. I can't even imagine how Andrew will have it otherwise" he answers.

"Right. Now, something a little more exciting; congratulations to your 10! That's a really good score, especially since you're not a Career. It's not many non-Careers that gets higher than a 7." Ceasar says and pats Jonathan on his back.

"Thanks." Jonathan says, but I can tell that he doesn't think it's anything to congratulate him for. It's just a score.

The interview goes on. They talk more about the training. Jonathan's life at home. Ceasar asks about what he thought during the Reaping right when the buzzer goes off and Jonathan goes back to his seat.

Next up is Lupia. She skips over to Ceasar. I make sure I listen carefully at what she says. It frustrates me that I can't figure her out, and I don't want to miss anything she might say that can tell me what she's trying to do.

Everything she says is completely normal. She talks about her life at home, with Dean. How excited she is to be in the Capitol. How nervous she is about the Games. And the Reaping.

"Weren't you sad when both you and Dean got picked? And no one volunteered!" Ceasar says, but Lupia still smiles.

"Not really. We volunteered. We wanted it to happen all along." Lupia answers.

I frown. What does she mean?

"What do you mean?" Ceasar asks, also frowning.

"We are going to escape from the Arena and bring down the Capitol"

Everything becomes dark. The light flickers, enough for me to see Lupia getting dragged away. Someone locks my arms behind my back and leads me off the stage.

* * *

**That might sound a little like the original Hunger Games, but it won't later, promise! If you have forgotten how Phoenix's dress looks, it's in chapter 10 ;)**

**Next chapter, the Arena!**

**I was supposed to post this on Sunday, but I did it today, cause it's my birthday on Sunday, so I would probably forget to post it. I'm turning 15, and do you know what would make me really happy for my birthday? Reviews. So please review, and make my birthday awesome! ;)**


	16. Let the 68th Hunger Games begin!

I'm being led through a corridor at the bottom floor. No one else is in front or behind me. The peacekeeper that holds me leads me into a small room, then he leaves, and I hear the lock on the door click.

The room is only lit by a weak light bulb in the ceiling. The walls are grey concrete, and there's only a small squeaky bed in a corner. No windows. It's dead silent. I sit down on the bed.

What the hell just happened? I close my eyes to try to figure everything out.

_After the light was turned off, I was led off the stage. The other tributes were around me. When I came into the corridor I was alone. The others were led somewhere else. Just before he disappeared, Jonathan was looking at me with a questioning look. There was also panic in his eyes. Did he know what was happening?_

I lay down on the bed, and it feels like I lay there for hours before a peacekeeper comes to pick me up. He walks behind me with a gun ready. He tells me not to try anything. Not that I know what I would try.

We leave the Training Center and travel in a vehicle for about half an hour. We arrive at a large building that looks kind of scary. The peacekeeper leads me inside. We go to a large room. In the middle of the room is a long table with many chairs around, and on one of the ends is a big screen.

I get told to sit down on one of the chairs. The peacekeeper stays right behind me.

I notice some other tributes around the table. Soon Jonathan comes too. He sits down opposite of me, and raises his eyebrows at me. I think he's asking if I know what's going on, so I shake my head.

Last of all comes Lupia. Her hands are cuffed behind her back and she has three peacekeepers following her. She sits down at the end of the table.

A man at the other end, in front of the large screen, stands up and clears his throat.

"I'm Theon, head of security. You have been gathered here because you are considered threats. Any questions before we begin?" the man says.

"Yes! Where are we?" The girl from 4 asks.

"What do you mean with threats?" asks Denim.

"What is even happening?" asks the boy from 10.

Theon sighs.

"You are in the security headquarters. Here we make sure that the Capitol is safe. We, for example, send out all of the peacekeepers. You are considered threats because Lupia said, on live TV, that you are going to_ 'escape from the Arena and bring down the Capitol'_. That's what's happening. We can't risk that happening, so we're trying to-"

"Wait, what?! _We_ are going to escape? No, no, _we_ had nothing to do with this, at least not me!" I shout out. I did not have anything to do with this! I refuse to get into trouble again!

"There's no point in lying, we-" Theon starts, but Lupia interrupts.

"She's not lying. She had nothing to do with this, no one had. It was just me." She says, but Theon just shakes his head.

"As I said, there's no point in lying" he says. "And even if no one here would have nothing to do with it, surely Dean must have."

"No he didn't. I turned him in myself because I wanted him to help me. I knew that if I told him before the Reapings, he would never turn himself in. He didn't have a clue about this. _No one_ did."

"Enough!" Theon shouts and slams his hands in the table. "There's no point in trying anything right now, you've already told us! You told everyone, on live TV!"

"But she's telling the truth! We had nothing to do with this!" Jonathan tries to convince. Everyone else tries to get a word in it too.

"Why won't you believe us?!"

"It was all her!"

"We didn't know anything about this!"

I also join in the complaints. Eventually I see the tributes in front of me falling together one by one. Then I feel a sting in my arm, and everything turns black.

* * *

When I wake up, I'm back in the small room. What is happening?! I'm getting seriously pissed off by all of this. Lupia just put everyone in trouble. Everyone is about to die soon anyway, so it's not like they have to do anything about her…

And also, how will they do about the rest of the interviews? It's kind of unfair that the remaining tributes didn't get to tell the Capitol who they are. That reduces their chances of getting sponsors, which also reduces their chances to survive. Which I should be pleased about, but come on, it's a killing competition.

After a while, a peacekeeper picks me up again. He leads me out of the building, in to a vehicle, and then I get dropped off at the Training Center. There another peacekeeper follows me up to district 8's floor, and then I'm left alone. Just like that. They didn't say anything. They didn't explain why I was let go. They just brought me back here.

Jonathan arrives just a minute after me.

"Do you know what's happening?" I ask.

"Not a clue. I asked one of the peacekeepers, but he didn't answer" Jonathan answers.

The elevator doors slide open again, and Emerald, Kaila, Eunia and Rufus come out.

"What is going on?!" Emerald shouts out the second she sees me and Jonathan.

"I was hoping you knew" I say.

"Well, we haven't heard anything since they shut off the lights at Lupia's interview" Eunia tells and waves to an Avox.

"We were led to the Security Headquarters and met Theon, head of security. He accused us all for being part of whatever Lupia has going on, but before we had time to talk about whatever he wanted to talk about, everyone was shouting so we were put down and then brought back here." Jonathan explains.

"But we have no idea what Lupia think she's doing" I add.

"How about we go watch if they're airing any announcements on TV? Surely the citizens must wonder what happened." Eunia suggests and takes the cup of coffee that the Avox just brought her.

"I would like some coffee too" I tell the Avox who walks back to the kitchen, while the rest of us go to the TV.

Kaila turns on the TV and the Capitol Seal appears on the screen. The Avox brings me my cup of coffee that I start to sip on.

After a while, Ceasar appears on the screen. He is sitting on the stage. And in the back I see all of the 24 tributes. Including me…

"_Hello everybody! I am very sorry about earlier, but we had a little problem with the electricity, but that's all fixed now. So, we are going to continue the interviews right where we left off, with Lupia. Now, if you have forgotten the start of her interview, her it is_" Ceasar says with his familiar smile, and a clip of Lupia's interview starts to play. It shows the two minute-interview she had, and then it cuts right when Ceasar asked if she was sad when she and Dean got picked. Ceasar appears live on the screen again, and this time, Lupia sits next to him.

"_So, how did you feel?_" Ceasar continues, and Lupia answers that she was devastated. They continue with the last minute of her interview, then the other tributes get their interviews. But the strange thing is that this is supposed to be live. But still I see myself in the background, reacting at the questions. I laugh when someone says something funny. I look sad and tilt my head, like I always do, when someone says something sad.

"How is this happening?" I ask towards the end. "I see myself sitting in the back."

"They probably cut a bunch of tapes together. The Capitol is able to create non-existing creatures and send them to kill kids, surely they should be able to create videos of fake interviews" Jonathan suggests.

"Yeah. You know, I noticed that almost every time you laugh, you sit in the exact same way and look the exact same way in your face. " Kaila says. I concentrate on the image of me behind Ceasar, and notice it too.

The interviews end. I decide to skip dinner and go to sleep. Tomorrow the Games will start, so any final advices should be told now.

"Try to make allies if you get the opportunity. Don't forget to find water. And avoid the bloodbath as much as you can. If there are any weapons or supplies near you, go for it, but don't get in too far. Then you probably won't get out" Kaila tells us. I hug her and Emerald goodbye, since this will be the last time I see them. I'm actually gonna miss them.

I take a shower to get rid of the make-up, and then go to sleep. Well, I _try_ to sleep. I don't succeed. But I don't feel like getting up, so I just lay there. Awake.

At some point I fall asleep, but when Eunia comes to pick me up in the morning, it doesn't feel like I've slept at all.

We go up to the roof, and a hovercraft comes to pick us up. A woman inserts a tracker under the skin of my arm, so that the Game makers always will know where I am. Every second from now, they will know where I am.

Breakfast is served on the hovercraft on the way to the Arena. Jonathan is already there, and is sitting at a long table among some other tributes, though he doesn't talk to them. I walk over to sit next to him, and on my way I notice Lupia. She's sitting at a small table in a corner, with two peacekeepers behind her. Like she's going to try anything now…

I eat with Jonathan. We sit quiet during the entire thirty minute-ride. Then we get off the hovercraft and enter the catacombs under the arena.

All the tributes and their stylists are now in a large circular hall underground. There are 24 hallways around the walls, one for each tribute. Everyone starts to walk towards their own launch room. Before I leave with Eunia I start to run towards Jonathan, who's already gone towards his room.

"Jonathan!" I call after him. "Jonathan!"

He stops and turns around the second before I run into him with my arms open. He loses his balance for a second, but when he's steady again he wraps his arms around me too.

"I'm sorry" I say, the tears dripping from my cheeks. "I'm so sorry"

"No, I'm sorry." He says. "I was stupid, thinking I could-"

"Don't" I interrupt.

We stand there for a minute or two, enjoying the last moment in peace we have together. Then Eunia and Rufus tells us that we have to go.

"I love you" I say, tightening my grip around him.

"I love you too" he says and his voice cracks. He's crying too.

I reluctantly loosen my grip around him and then follow Eunia to my launch room.

I take a shower, brush my hair, and put it in a high ponytail. Then I get dressed in the clothes that arrive. A blue t-shirt, beige jacket and skinny black pants. The shoes look like boots, but feel lighter and thinner. All of the tributes get the same clothes. I linger as much as I can when I get dressed, to get as little awkward silence as possible with Eunia when we wait for the Games to begin.

When I'm done I expect nothing from Eunia, but she starts to talk the second I sit down on the small couch.

"Don't forget what Kaila said." She says and looks at me like she's deadly serious.

"Yeah, I know. Make allies, find water, avoid the bloodbath" I answer.

"Avoid the bloodbath _as much as you can_. A weapon and some supplies are great. Just don't get in too far. Even if you see a weapon right in the middle that you want, and you're way ahead of the others; don't take it. Trust me. You don't want to." She explains. On her last words she sounds sad and looks away.

"Yeah, okay." I say.

A voice tells me that it's time to get ready. I sigh and give Eunia a quick goodbye-hug before I step on to the small metal platform that sits inside a glass tube. The tube closes as soon as I'm inside. After a few seconds it starts to rise above ground.

I prepare for blinding sunshine that my eyes will need a moment to get used to, but the surroundings are oddly enough quite dark. It looks like the sun is hidden behind a layer of smoke, that covers the entire sky. It smells odd. Kind of like when you stand behind a factory back home, right where all the fumes from the machines come out. Right now the Arena doesn't seem as… free as the previous years.

Joining a circle with me stands the other 23 tributes. I see Jonathan a few platforms away from me. Right in the middle of the circle stands the Cornucopia. The announcer, Claudius Templesmith's, voice calls out the usual greeting-phrase.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the 68th Hunger Games begin!"

* * *

**Finally, it's time for the games! Wow, 16 chapters, **_**before**_** the Games? That's a lot. Maybe you should know this about me, but I can't write short stories. I have to write all the details, otherwise it feels so empty. That's why it took so long until the Arena…**

**I actually finished this chapter last Sunday, 'cause I had some time over after I had celebrated my birthday with my family, so I just wrote. And since I got it finished so early I couldn't wait until tomorrow, so I posted it today instead! **

**And ohmigod, maybe I'm a little late about this, but for my birthday I got The Hunger Games: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, Guide to The Hunger Games **_**and**_** The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide. Yay! **

**Please review! I had 9 visitors on the last chapter just this week, but only 1 review, so I know you're out there somewhere!  
**


	17. Seashell, Starfish, Coral

The clock starts to count down. 1 minute. Not a second more have I got, to figure out what to do before I have to run. If I run any sooner I will be blown to bits. I look around to try to take in the environment. _60 seconds._

In front of me, on the other side of the Cornucopia, and a little to my left I see woods. But not green woods. The trees are naked and the ground is covered in dead leaves and broken branches, and here and there lies big rocks. _50._

To the left the woods meet a large mountain. But a nearly flat mountain. Like a hill, but the ground is all stone. On the stone grows some bushes. _40._

To my right are houses. It looks like an abandoned village. Cottages where the roofs have collapsed. Shops where the doors and windows have been blocked. And large buildings too, reminding the ones in the Capitol. Only these are no way near as extravagant and colorful. These are grey, and to the point of falling apart. _30_

Behind me lies the luscious woods. It seems like somewhere the sun has escaped the cloud of smoke, and shines brightly onto the green homes of the birds I hear sing. It seems welcoming. Friendly. Free. _It's a trap_, I immediately decide. There must be hideous monsters hiding in the places the sun can't reach. They're hiding among the shadows, waiting for the tributes to examine what they can't see. _20._

In the opening of the Cornucopia lies weapons, supplies, food, anything I can think of that I need to be able to survive out here. There are also things lying on the ground further away from the structure. I look after something useful that's not too far away from me. Then I notice. A bow and a quiver with arrows. Right in front of me. Literally, right in front of me. I could reach out and grab them right now if I wanted to. _10._

I can't seem to find anything wrong with them. _9._

Still, something inside me tells me that it's too good to be true. _8._

They're just lying there. _7._

It would be really easy to just grab them and then run away to safety. _6._

Something has to be wrong. _5._

Are they dipped in poison? _4._

Will they set off a bomb? _3._

Or did they actually put a perfectly fine bow right in my reach? _2._

What are they trying to do? _1._

Why are they there? _0._

My time to think is up. I sprint off my platform and grab the bow and arrows on my way. Then I take a backpack that's close to me before I run off to the abandoned houses.

I run to the nearest house and climb in between the boards that are blocking the window.

The house is dark and smells old and rotten. I quickly go up the small stairwell and find a room with a window that provides a view of the Cornucopia. I peek between the boards to find out what's happening, and how brutal the bloodbath is. _Avoid the bloodbath as much as you can. _I think I managed to follow that advice quite well.

I already see a few bodies lying still on the ground. The Careers are fighting off the other tributes. You can easily tell who is who. The Careers are quite a bit taller than the rest of us. One by one I see tributes fall to the ground. Some manage to escape. Most of the younger ones that escape run for the luscious woods. Others find themselves among the rustling leaves and bare trees. A few runs towards my hiding place, but luckily no one tries to save themselves in the same house I am.

I can't see Jonathan. He's not one of the fallen tributes, but I can't see him fighting either. Either he's on the other side of the Cornucopia, or he's already run off to find shelter.

"Got a good view?" a girl's voice asks from behind be, and I immediately freeze. Is she, whoever it is, pointing a weapon at me?

"It could've been better" I answer, trying not to sound as scared as I actually am.

"Sure, but if you want a better view than this you would have to be on top of the horn. Or in the air" she suggests, and I hear her moving closer to me. How come I didn't hear her come in? I find it strange that she doesn't sound a bit sarcastic or threatening when she speaks to me. She sounds friendly, in fact.

The girl stands next to me and crouches down so she can see through the window.

"Looks like they're having fun" she says. Even though she's right beside me I don't dare to look at her. My eyes are locked at the battle going on at the Cornucopia. Though I glance her brown curls in the corner of my eye.

She sighs and then sits down against the wall.

"Hey, loosen up" she says and hits me, loose, on my leg, which causes me to twitch.

Even though I can't really 'loosen up', I at least look at the girl. I recognize her. The hair. The warm, welcoming brown eyes. The skinny small figure, despite her age. It's the girl from 4. Seashell, Starfish, something like that. How come she's not with the Careers?

She picks up a small knife she has in her belt, and holds it in her hand. She turns it so that it reflects the light that seeps in through the window.

I take a deep breath and then sit down next to her.

"What are you doing here?" I ask and lock my gaze on the sharp knife she holds.

"The same thing you are doing. Hiding." She answers and looks at me, noticing that I'm staring on her knife.

"What? You think that I'm going to kill you?" she says and puts the knife back in her belt, which makes me relax a bit. "You haven't done anything to me, why would I kill you?"

"Because that's what we're here to do. To kill each other" I answer.

"Maybe that's what you're here to do." She says. My curiosity wants to take over, but I don't ask about it. Maybe it's something personal.

"Coral" she introduces herself and reaches out her small hand.

"Phoenix" I say and shake her hand.

"Looks like you just got yourself an alley" Coral says. I sigh. "I mean, if you want one"

_Try to make allies if you get the opportunity_. Wow. That went quick and easy.

"Sure, why not?" I answer and then get up to peek through the window again.

"How's it going?" Coral asks.

"It has calmed down a bit, but they're still fighting" I tell.

"Is Zane there?" she asks, and I guess she can tell by my silence that I don't know who she's talking about. "My District partner"

"Uhm… I can't really remember what he looks like, but I think he's there. I see one, two, three large guys that are fighting, so I guess they're the Careers." I say and check for any potential District 4-boys.

"Probably" Coral sighs.

I sit down again next to her, and we sit quiet, occasionally hearing the screams from the tributes.

"How come you're not with the Careers?" I eventually ask.

"I didn't feel like being with them. They're too cocky. And overrated. Everyone always think that the Careers are the best tributes, just because they train their whole life. But they're not. I believe that everyone else, and I mean everyone, are much better. The reason that a Career almost always win is because the rest of us don't believe in ourselves. Because we already think that we won't win. That's what brings us down" Coral explains, apparently counting in herself as one of the non-Careers who don't believe they will win.

Her words sink into me. I try to understand them. I try to think that I will win. But I can't really convince myself.

The cannon starts to go off. I start to count the shots in my head, but Coral interrupts me.

"Fourteen, twenty-two, two-hundred-sixty-four, nine" She continues to count up different numbers that distracts me from counting the shots.

"What was that for?" I ask, slightly irritated, when the cannon quiets down.

"You don't want to know how many tributes died. If you know how many tributes that are still alive, then your subconscious will only think of the odds of you surviving. Not the actual surviving itself." Coral explains. She sure knows some things about these Games.

I sigh and lean the back of my head against the wall so that I look up in the ceiling.

"How come you want to ally with me?" I eventually ask, not bearing to sit in silence.

"I didn't think of you at first. But after you got a 2 at training I found you interesting. And then I saw you running in here, so I figured I might as well try" she explains, but her answer only makes me more confused.

"You found me interesting when I got a 2?" I ask and look at her.

"Yeah. You were really good at training, so I figured there must have been a reason you got a 2. You deserved more than a 2" she tells me, and starts to draw on the wooden floor with one of her small pointy knifes.

She's right. I look up in the ceiling again, but when I turn my head I catch a glimpse of Coral's drawings on the floor. At first I thought it was just scribbles, but the lines form letters. There was a capital E, that's for sure, and then there some lowercase letters. There were a D, and an R, or maybe it was an N? And I think there was a K too. My curiosity almost makes me look again, but I don't, thinking it's something private.

I see Coral crossing over the letters before she gets up and looks through the window.

"There's no more fighting. Well, no more brutal fighting. Though I see Denim sitting on top of a girl. That's typical him." Coral says. I frown and get up to look for myself.

"What do you mean?" I ask, seeing Denim sitting with his knees on a girl's wrists, with a knife pointing under her chin.

"Denim likes to tease girls. Surely you would know that. It looked like you were his target on training. No wait, it was you who used him as a target at the archery station" she teases and looks at me with a teasing smile, but with a hint of warmth.

"He's still my target. He's going to be my first kill." I tell.

"Good luck with that" Coral laughs.

"What?" I frown and look at Denim and the girl, imagining me on top of him instead.

"Whether you like it or not, you won't succeed. When you're about to kill him, if you ever get that close, he's going to say something annoying that makes you hesitate and turn the whole situation around to his advantage." Coral says. How does she know this about him?

"Whatever" I mutter.

Then I remember my bow and arrows. Is there anything wrong with them? I pick them up from the floor where I lay them when I got here, and examine the bow. Nothing seems wrong with it. The string is nice and tight. Then I pull out the arrows, one by one. They seem perfectly sharp and useful. Coral notices my doubt about my weapon.

"What are you worried about?" she asks.

"There must be something wrong with them. Why would they put a perfectly fine bow and arrows right in front of me?" I say and slide the arrows back in the quiver.

"Because they decided to do that this year. I got a belt with knives. I noticed Lupia and Denim got bows too. Zane got a spear, his specialty. Your brother got some larger knifes, and Mason from 2 got an axe. Etcetera, etcetera." Coral explains and shows her belt with knives. There are different sizes. Many of them are fairly small, that you easily could hide in the sleeve of your shirt and kill someone when they least expect it.

"Are you sure that it's not a trick? A trap of some sort?" I ask, still not sure about the weapons.

"Yup. A hundred percent" she answers and puts the belt back around her waist. I'm not sure how she knows this, but I decide to trust her, and don't ask about it.

A cannon goes off and I look through the window again. Denim gets off the girl who now lies still on the ground. So now it's… one more dead than it was before.

"Hey, did you get any food?" Coral asks and stands up in front of me.

I remember the backpack I snatched that's still on my back. I take it off and examine the content. One small loaf of bread, a bottle of water, a blanket and some bandages.

"Not much" I decide. "You?"

"A loaf of bread, a bottle of water, a blanket and some bandages" she sighs and I notice that she's also got a backpack, one that looks exactly like mine. "Now, let's get out of here"

I throw my backpack on my back again and we leave the house and move further into the 'village', away from the Cornucopia. I load an arrow, just in case, and Coral always has her hand on her belt.

"Come on, let's check over here" a voice says around a corner.

Coral and I both freeze. I raise my bow and Coral takes a knife and grips it hard.

"Just straight ahead" the voice continues.

Coral and I back up a bit and hide around a corner. I stay hidden while Coral peeks out. Then she slightly reveals herself a bit more and throws out two knifes in a second. I sigh and relax a bit when I hear them both hit, but I tense the moment I hear the gasps of pain. I immediately recognize one of the screams.

"Jonathan!"

* * *

**First chapter in the Arena! I hope you like it, at least I did. I'm actually quite proud of the explanation of the luscious woods in the beginning. I felt quite poetic when I wrote that. I think that the other explanations were bad. Just really bad.**

**I would like to thank my dear friend Hanna for the character Coral. Though you don't really sense Coral's personality in this chapter, it will show more later. As well as her backstory. Hanna has a thing for backstories, and I'm really grateful that she helped me create some of the tributes. So thank you sooo much! :D (Thank you to Eli too, who also made some characters for me, but you will get to know them later. Eli also has some stories here. If you like vampires, you're gonna love her stories! Check out 'Bloody Hearts' ;))**

**Oh, and finally it's summer vacation! At least for me. Hopefully I have time to write this summer, cause I have quite a lot to do the first half. Starting today and until last June, I have meetings and camps with my Confirmation-group. Now I'm not sure if it's called Confirmation in English, but google approved of it. I have meetings almost every day, and when that's over I'm going on almost-vacation for two weeks, and I might not have internet there, but I might have. So, I might not update once a week like I have been the last few weeks, but I'm hoping I can write just as much as I have been!**

**Please review! :)**


	18. What happens on the roof

I lower my bow and run out to Coral's victims. There he is, grabbing his shoulder, where I hint a cut from the knife.

"Jonathan!" I gasp and run forward to him. "Are you okay?!"

I remove his hand to get a better look at the wound. The cut's quite deep and reaches right across about half his shoulder.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize it was your brother!" Coral says when she comes up behind me. She really seems worried. Jonathan glances at his attacker for a second before putting his attention back to the cut.

"It's okay, it could've been anyone" I say, even though it isn't really okay.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking" the voice we first heard says. Coral looks at the owner of the voice and then suspiciously at Jonathan.

"You better treat him too since we're probably gonna end up as allies" Jonathan says, and Coral runs over to the boy to look at his wounds.

"That's Coral, from 4" I tell and take off Jonathan's jacket.

"4?" he says confused. "Shouldn't she be with the other Careers?"

"She thinks they're too cocky" I explain while I carefully remove his shirt to get a better look at the wound. He gives off slight groans of pain when he lifts his arm, even though I try to be as gentle as possible when I remove the shirt.

It doesn't bleed a lot, but the cut is placed quite bad, so he will probably have some trouble with his arm later.

"Who's your partner?" I then ask and look at the boy who is getting treated by Coral.

"Cordin. From 3" he answers.

"We need to get you two to safety." Coral cuts in. "This isn't the best position to treat wounds"

The rest of us agree and we start moving deeper among the houses. I notice Coral's glancing at my brother now and then, who is walking shirtless. No way. Don't even think about it.

After a while we arrive at some stairs at the sidewalk. They're leading into the darkness underground, but we take the chance and go down.

At the end of the stairs is a small empty area, and on the other side of the floors is a dark tunnel with some sort of tracks on the ground. It reminds of a train-station, but underground, and with tunnels where the train goes.

"What is this?" I ask, and my voice echoes through the tunnels.

"We're in the subway. I saw these when we traveled to the Capitol. Train-like vehicles go through these tunnels to transport people or goods underground." Coral explains. Why does she know so much about everything?

"Hopefully there are no trains here now" Cordin sighs.

"Yeah, hopefully" Jonathan says.

"Come on, let's look at your wounds" I say. Jonathan and Cordin sit down on one of the lower steps of the stairwell.

I use up half my bottle of water to clean his cut and then wrap his shoulder with my bandage, and Coral does the same to Cordin.

"How does it feel?" I ask Jonathan.

"It hurts a bit when I move. But it'll be fine, don't worry about it" Jonathan tries to reassure me and pulls on his shirt. He tries to act like it doesn't hurt when he moves his arm, but I can see he's in pain. I sigh but don't really find the energy to argue with him.

"So, where should we go? I don't like it down here" Cordin asks and stand up from the stairs.

"Oh, come on, I think it's kind of cozy down here. And since it echoes we're gonna hear if anyone comes down" Coral says.

"Okay" Cordin sighs. "Then we might as well check the tunnels. There might be hidden rooms, supplies the game makers have put away, or something like that"

We pack our things, hop down on the tracks and start to walk through the tunnels. I don't hear anything but our own footsteps. Occasionally we find a ladder on the wall that leads to a door in the ceiling, but all of them are locked.

"This isn't leading anywhere, we can't walk any further!" I complain after what feels like several hours, but it's probably only gone about twenty minutes or so.

"She's actually right" Cordin says. "If we go too far and there really isn't anything to come, the game makers will probably turn this into a maze and send in a mutt to kill us."

"Let me just check this door and then we'll turn back" Jonathan says and runs forwards to a close ladder and checks the door in the ceiling, but it's also locked. Right when he's about to climb down again he stops for a second, and it looks like he's wondering something, but then he jumps down and we start to walk back.

"What?" Jonathan asks when he catches me staring strangely at him.

"You tell me" I say, and I can tell he understands what I mean.

"Oh, that was… I thought I… Nothing" he answers. Yeah right. But once again, I don't find the energy to fight with him.

Somehow it feels like it takes longer to walk back. What if the game makers actually turn the tunnels into a maze? I push the though away immediately. I have to stay positive. Well, as positive as I can in this situation.

"We should be there soon" Cordin says and I sigh of relief. He seems more sure than me, so hopefully we'll be there soon.

"Guys, wait a second" Jonathan says and everyone stops.

"What?" I ask. I recognize the questioning look on Jonathan's face.

He bends down and touches the tracks on the ground.

"They're shaking." He tells. He stands quiet for a second. "Don't you hear that?"

I try to listen at whatever it is he's hearing. Nothing. It's quiet. There's only a weak humming sound in the background.

"No…" Cordin says.

"Wait, I think I hear it" Coral says. "It's getting louder"

It must be the humming sound they're talking about. Very carefully it's getting louder. You can barely hear it, but it is.

"What is it?" I ask and look around. There's nothing here that wasn't here before.

Suddenly Coral looks panicked, like she just found out something terrible.

"It's a train" she says.

"What?" I ask confused.

"It's a train!" she repeats. "And if we don't move, it's going to crush us!"

When the rest of us realize what she's talking about we start running. The humming gets louder as the train comes closer. You can tell running is not Cordin's strong side, since he keeps falling behind.

"There it is!" Jonathan shouts when we get closer to the floors we started at.

"And there the train is!" Coral says, and behind us I see two bright lights coming closer.

We start running faster to make it before the train. The panic rises as the train comes closer, and it feels like we're not going to make it. I completely forget about the others and focus on getting myself to safety.

I reach the platform first, for some strange reason, climb up and stay on the floor. I get so relieved that I'm not dead, so I just lay there. Jonathan climbs up right after and also stays down to catch his breath.

"Where are the others?" I then ask and crawl to the edge to look out at the tracks. Coral comes, but doesn't climb up. She stops to check Cordin, who's quite far behind.

"Come on, Cordin!" she calls after him.

"I'm running the fastest I can!" he screams through his heavy breathing. The train's coming closer. He's not going to make it. No! Stay positive!

"Come on, you can make it!" I shout at him. He starts to run a little faster, but it doesn't look good.

He literally runs for his life, but the train just comes closer and closer. Then it actually looks like he's going to make it. But he trips. He trips and gets stuck in the tracks.

"Cordin!" Coral calls and runs over to him and tries to help him get loose, but it's impossible. I can't really see from where I am how stuck he is, but I can tell Coral does the best she can.

"Stop it! I can't get loose, you have to leave!" Cordin shouts over the now overwhelming sound of the train.

"No, I won't!" Coral shouts back and continues to try to pull him loose.

"Stop it! Now! It's impossible!" Cordin argues.

Coral stands back and hesitates. The sound of the train gets louder.

"Run!" Cordin shouts and Coral runs back.

She climbs up on the floors the second before the train flies by, and Cordin's gone. The cannon sounds just as loud down in the tunnels as it does above ground.

When the train has disappeared again I crawl back to the edge and peek out. There are no signs of Cordin. Just a small piece of fabric stuck between the tracks. No blood. Nothing.

I don't really know what to do. I don't know how to react. I knew him for what, an hour or two? Well, I didn't even really know him, we were just allies. And the only reason we were allies was because he and my brother were allies. And I don't even know how they became allies.

I turn around. Jonathan's just staring out in the open. He seems just as confused as I am. Coral's eyes are tearing up.

"We should probably keep going" I say after a while to try to get everyone's minds off of Cordin. We really can't just sit here. More people are going to die. We just have to get used to it.

"Sure" Jonathan sighs and we all get up and walk back up the stairs.

Everything is still quiet above ground. Creepy quiet. And it's a lot darker than when we first came here.

"We should find somewhere to stay for the night" Coral suggests.

"Yeah, sure, but where?" Jonathan asks.

"If we want to stay in this area we could get on top of a house. Some of them actually have flat roofs." Coral tells and points to some larger houses basically without roofs.

We head to the houses since I can't come up with anyplace else to hide. We enter the tallest of the houses to get the best view and go up to the top floor, the third floor. There we have to climb out of the window to be able to reach the roof, but it's not that hard.

We decide to take turns staying up to keep watch during the night. Since Jonathan is hurt, I insist to take his shift so he gets extra rest. Coral gets the first shift, so I lie down on the hard roof. It's not that cold out, so I fold together the blanket from my back pack and use it as a pillow instead.

I really want to fall asleep since I'm taking Jonathans shift, but it is impossible. I just can't. But I guess it's not that strange. I just survived a day in the Arena. I got a weapon that I can use, I got an ally, my ally hurt my brother, and I watched my brother's ally die. It feels like so much happened, and it's only been a few hours. We arrived in the morning, but I know we haven't spent an entire day here. The day has been so short. The Game Makers must have made the sun set earlier.

Laughs interrupt my thoughts. I turn around and see Coral and Jonathan sitting next to each other with their backs against me. I didn't hear them talking. Since I can't sleep anyway, I decide to listen to their conversation.

"You're so mean!" Coral laughs and punches Jonathan on his shoulder.

"I was like 7 years old, you can't blame me for thinking it was funny" Jonathan answers.

"Yeah, but she was like 4 years old. What if she became really sad? What if she gets really sad nowadays because it reminds her?" Coral giggles. Are they talking about me?

"No, nowadays I just tease her about it, like all siblings do. But it's not like it's a mean nickname, I think it's really cute" Aah, they're talking about my nickname, Jyx. How interesting…

Coral leans her head on Jonathan's shoulder and they sit quiet. After a while Jonathan breaks the silence.

"So, why did you volunteer?"

"How do you know I volunteered?" Coral asks. Well, she looked kind of relieved when she got picked at the Reaping.

"You didn't look worried or sad at the Reaping. You looked relieved." Jonathan answers. Coral sighs.

"It's a long story" she says and lifts her head from Jonathan's shoulder.

"I've got time" he says and looks at Coral, who sighs again.

"Okay, it's not that long. Uhm, my family is quite poor. Well, very poor. So my dad wanted me to marry this rich guy. Everything was ready for us to get married, but I didn't want to. So I saw this as an escape. I don't really care if I come out or not. If I die, then I won't have to go back and marry him. But if I win, then we will get enough money so I won't need to marry him. " Coral explains.

"Really? That seems like a quite small reason. Are you sure there isn't anything else?" Jonathan says.

Coral sits quiet for a few seconds. Then she takes a deep breath.

"My dad abuses my mother. Every day. Every night. He has been for as long as I can remember. The smallest, stupidest thing she does wrong and she gets beaten. One day my little brother, he was 9 at the time, stood up for her. She had forgotten to take in the laundry that was out drying when it started raining, and that made dad really angry. My brother jumped between them when she was about to get hit. He argued with my dad, trying to convince him how stupid it was. But dad just got madder and started beating my brother instead. He was so young. He was in shock. So he drowned himself. Since that day my mother cries every night when she goes to sleep. But that only makes dad annoyed, so she gets more beaten. I was hoping to win this thing, go back home, so that me and mom could move in to the new house. So she could leave dad. It was really hard to leave her alone with him, but I had to. To save her." Coral tells.

"I'm so sorry" Jonathan says.

"Nah, it's… It's okay" Coral murmurs.

Jonathan strokes a hair from Coral's face. He leans forward and they meet in a kiss. All this happens while I lay awake and watch them.

* * *

**You didn't think I would let Jonathan die this soon, did you? Nah, I let him find some love, and let another guy die. Oh, and I'm sorry for the crappy explanation of the subway, I really couldn't find words...  
**

**Hope you liked this chapter, and please review!**


	19. Two Arrows, One Deer

What is he doing?! He can't kiss another tribute! He does know that at least one of them will be dead in a few weeks, right? I can't let him do this…

I'm just about to 'wake up' and interrupt them when Coral does it herself.

"I can't" she says and turns away from Jonathan.

"What, why?" Jonathan asks, probably more confused than I am.

"There is one more thing to my story. There's this guy."

Oh. That's awkward. Jonathan sighs.

"His name's Edric. My dad doesn't like him. Mainly because he knew what was going on between us when I was supposed to marry another man. I'm sorry. But I love him. He is the love of my life. That's another reason I volunteered. I would be able to be with him. I'm so sorry" Coral tells, and her voice cracks.

Jonathan doesn't say anything.

"Jonathan?" Coral asks.

"I should get some sleep" Jonathan finally says. He moves further away from Coral and then lies down and tries to sleep. Coral sighs.

What the hell just happened? Why did my brother kiss Coral? Why did Coral kiss my brother? She said it herself; she has another guy back home! Player...

My thoughts spin around like crazy in my head. Can I really trust Coral? What if she's just playing with my brother to be able to kill him easier?

The audience must be thrilled at home right now. Or at least the Capitol. If they can tell that I'm awake they're probably even happier. But they probably know, I haven't really tried to look asleep since Jonathan and Coral has their backs against me.

Suddenly the sky lights up a bit and the anthem starts to play. The Capitol seal appears on the sky and the faces of the dead tributes appear.

The first tribute to appear is Cordin. Then both from 6. The boy from 7. Dean, from 9. The girl from 10. The girl from 11. Both from 12.

9 tributes. I don't really know if that's a high or a low number, since I haven't watched the Games earlier and don't have anything to compare with. It feels like a lot. But it feels like few at the same time. 9 really aren't that many. But it's more than a third of all of the tributes.

There are 15 left. Me, Jonathan and Coral, The Careers, who are 5. Lupia. Meggie, the crying girl and her partner. I can't remember the rest…

Slightly after the anthem has quiet down, I fall asleep.

* * *

Coral wakes me up a few hours later. It's pitch black around us. No one seems to have been stupid enough to light a fire. That kind of annoys me, because it would be a really easy way to kill someone.

"Is it my shift?" I ask yawning.

"Yup" Coral answers and lies down on the roof.

"Goodnight" I say and sit up.

Coral yawns back and goes to sleep, while I rub my eyes and try to wake up properly. Immediately I hear Jonathan sitting up.

"Go to sleep, Jonathan" I tell him without looking at him.

"I can't sleep" he answers and moves closer to me.

"Well you're not going to fall asleep if you sit up with me" I reason. Jonathan sighs and sits next to me anyway.

"You saw, didn't you?" he asks when he's beside me.

"Saw what?" I ask, even though I know he's talking about the kiss.

"You know what I mean" he says and looks at me, but I can't see his face in the dark.

_No lies in the Arena_, I decide. We don't have much time anyway. "Yes, I did."

Jonathan sighs and drops his head.

"You do realize that at least one of you will be dead in just a few weeks?" I ask him, raising my voice a bit.

"I know" Jonathan whispers so he won't wake Coral. "I don't know what I was thinking. I just…"

"I don't care what you do while we're here. Just think about what you do. Be absolutely a hundred percent certain that you can trust her. Be careful." I say. "Now try to sleep"

Through the dark I can just about see Jonathan smiling at me before moving away and going to sleep again.

I stare out in the dark. It's really quiet right now. No tributes fighting. No birds singing. No wolfs howling. Nothing. The silence makes me shiver because it reminds me of the subway. The train flies by in front of my eyes.

Then the silence is interrupted. I hear steps on the ground. Someone is here. I move closer towards the center of the roof so whoever it is won't see me from the ground. Jonathan and Coral is lying down, so they're probably safe. The steps stop, and there's a loud thump. Then it's completely quiet again.

I decide to go check on the noise. I stand up as quiet as I can and pick up my bow and arrows. I walk to the edge of the roof towards where the sound came from. There's another house right next to this one, so I easily jump over to the next roof.

I glance down to the ground, but I can't see anyone, so I continue to the next house.

When I glance down again I see someone sitting against the wall of the house. I slowly move closer, but quickly stop when the roof creaks. The person sitting on the ground probably didn't hear me, 'cause he or she sits still.

I move closer, even more carefully than before, but the roof continues to creak.

I decide to act fast. I quickly head over to the edge of the roof and prepare myself to shoot an arrow before the person has time to realize what's happening, but my plan fails when the roof collapses under my feet and I follow.

I land on top of a pile of the wooden boards that I was standing on just a second ago. I let out a scream without thinking, but when I realize what I've done, it's too late. Not that it would really matter if I screamed or not, I'm sure you would notice me anyway.

I quickly dig out my bow that landed under some boards and then run and hide behind a door that leads to a bedroom.

I glance out from the door when a young boy, with a quite big knife in his hand, rushes in. He examines the pile of wood, and finds one of my arrows that apparently slid out of my quiver when I fell. I load my bow, and as soon as he has his back against me, I reach out and shoot him. The cannon goes off immediately.

I want to get my arrows, but I don't really want to see the boy that I killed, so I leave the house right away. I notice that I limp on my left leg. Great. Just great. My shoulder and my back hurts too, but I'm not surprised, with that fall I had.

I go back to our house and climb up on the roof, ignoring the pain from my back that gets worse when I reach out of the window. As soon as I come up on the roof, Jonathan comes rushing against me.

"Phoenix! Where were you?! Do you realize how worried I was when a cannon woke me up and you're not here?!" he shouts and hugs me tight, so that my shoulder hurts even more.

"I heard a noise, so I went to check it, then I fell through a roof and killed a boy" I answer and wriggle loose from his grip and rub my shoulder.

Jonathan doesn't say anything, but I can see that his eyes are shiny.

"I'm sorry, I should've woken you up before I left" I say.

"Nah, it's… It's okay" he says and wipes his nose with his arm. _You're not a very good liar. _"You're hurt. I can stay up the rest of the night so you'll get some sleep."

"Don't. I'm fine" I say and shake my head. "It's not that bad"

Jonathan sighs, but doesn't argue with me. He lies back down on the roof, and I sit down next to him.

The night goes by. Nothing happens. Well, there's actually another death. The cannon wakes Jonathan again, but he goes back to sleep when he sees that I'm still here.

* * *

When the sun rises I wake up Jonathan and Coral. I tell Coral about the boy I killed, and that someone else died as well, but I don't know who.

Then we all decide to leave the house and find some food, but first we eat Coral's and my piece of bread that we got in our back packs.

We leave towards the woods. Not the green woods, the other. It isn't that smart really, cause we will probably make a lot of noise among the dead leaves and branches on the grounds, but we all think that it's smarter than the green woods. That one's obviously a trap.

When we exit the village we see that the Careers are still at the Cornucopia. They have gathered all the supplies that no one took, and put it in the opening of the horn. They are sitting in a circle and are discussing something.

We carefully sneak by, making sure that we don't make any sound. They are quite far away, but you never know.

At the beginning of the woods is a path that's leading deeper among the trees. The path is completely cleared of any leaves or branches, so we start walking on the path. I walk first with my bow loaded. I don't really understand why they thought I should walk first. Sure, I've got a bow, but I'm not good at archery. Coral can at least hit with her knives. I might hit, but if we meet another tribute everything's going to happen in the blink of an eye, and I won't have time to think of what I'm doing.

Soon it rustles among the leaves. We all stand still and try to find the source of the sound. I barely see it behind some trees, but it's there. A deer. A quite big deer. The Game Makers have put deer in the Arena. Okay…

I take my time to aim at the deer. To help a bit, I imagine shooting Denim. That has worked before.

I release the string, and the arrow hits, but the deer runs away. Maybe it didn't bury that deep. In case the deer will collapse on its way, we follow the path towards the way the deer ran off.

Soon Coral finds it lying down on the ground.

"Now we got lunch" she laughs and runs over to it, but she slows down as she gets closer. "Phoenix. You shot one arrow, right?"

"Yeah" I ask and frown. What does she mean? "Why?"

"There's two arrows in this deer"

* * *

**First of all I just want to say that I'm currently re-writing the first few chapters, mainly to change the tense. The first chapter is done, but I will not upload the new one until I have re-written all of the chapters that I'm planning to re-write, because I have changed some of the content of the first. So they will all come up at the same time, hopefully before the next chapter on Sunday.  
**

**And sorry that this chapter is a little late, I've been really busy this week. Hopefully the next chapters will come in time, cause I'm going on a mini-vacation tomorrow. First we'll be going by car for almost a day, then ship for almost a day, and then car again for half a day, so I will have quite some time to write.**

**I'm not really sure what I think of this chapter. I think it's kind of good, but I had slight writer's block when I wrote this, so I think it's kind of weird at some points. Oh, and thank you to my friend Rebecka (who by the way made the cover picture for this story) for helping me when the writer's block hit. Anyway, hope you liked this, and please review :)  
**


	20. Aiming

I immediately freeze in panic that someone's watching me right now. What if someone's pointing an arrow or aiming a spear at me this very second?

"That's a nice shot there, Phoenix," someone says behind me. Why is everyone sneaking up on me all the time?

I slowly turn around to find Lupia walking towards us. She's also got a bow and a quiver with arrows. Why didn't she just kill us?

"Lupia?" Jonathan says surprised.

Lupia ignores him and walks over to the deer and pulls out her arrow.

"No way" Coral says and turns a small knife in her hand. "I am not allying with you"

"Did I ask to ally with you? Though I do think we should share the deer, cause in all fairness; I shot it too" Lupia says and carefully polishes the head of the arrow with her thumb while glancing towards Coral.

"Whatever" Coral sighs and puts the knife back in her belt, and right after Lupia slides her arrow back in her quiver.

"How about we split this deer and then go our separate ways again. Jonathan, you're strong, can you carry the deer and I'll show the way to my camp" Lupia decides and starts walking back to the path.

I look at Jonathan who looks questioning at me. I shrug and he picks up the deer, and then we follow Lupia.

After a few minutes we arrive at a small cave with a fireplace outside. Could she be more obvious?

Jonathan throws the deer on the ground while Lupia sneaks into the cave, and then comes back out with a back pack.

"What are you waiting for? I can't cut it, I haven't got any knives" Lupia says and sits down on the ground in front of the fireplace.

Jonathan sits down by the deer and starts to cut it up in two pieces, one slightly bigger than the other. Then he hands the smaller piece to Lupia, who stuffs it in her back pack, and the bigger piece to me. I also put it in my back pack.

"Great, so now that that's done, can we leave? We should really find a better place to stay. I suggest anywhere that's really far from here" Coral says with a bitter tone in her voice, while fingering on her belt.

"Go ahead, I'm not stopping you" Lupia says and walks back into her cave. Before she enters, she turns around and looks at me. "Good luck, and I hope we don't see each other again" Then she disappears into the cave. I stand still and look at the entrance where Lupia dissapeared. She seems just the opposite than she was when I first met her.

"Can we go?" Coral says impatiently.

"Sure" I say, and we start walking on the path, away from Lupia's camp.

As soon as we start walking, Coral picks up one of her larger knives and starts to polish it with the sleeve of her jacket. She really didn't like Lupia, did she? She immediately said no to the idea of allying with her, and was very eager to leave.

"Why didn't you want to ally with Lupia?" Jonathan asks, as if reading my mind.

"Isn't that obvious? Every game maker must be holding on a mutt just waiting to attack her because of what she said on her interview. No way I want to be near her, that would be like begging to get killed" Coral explains. "I don't know about you, but I'm planning to come home"

We walk for a couple of hours, never coming across another animal or tribute. The woods never change a bit. The trees all look the same, it's like we're walking in circles, even though the path never turns.

"This isn't leading anywhere. It's just like the subway. The game makers have turned this into a never-ending path because they want us go in another direction. Even though it's what they want, we should walk another way, 'cause this isn't getting us anywhere." Jonathan says.

"You're right. But we should probably cook a piece of the deer before it gets dark. I'm getting hungry" Coral suggests.

Jonathan and I agree, so we leave the path and walk a bit into the woods before we sit down on some rocks. Jonathan takes the deer and cuts a chunk off, and then divides it into smaller pieces. I start to gather branches and leaves to make a fire, and Coral sits beside Jonathan and watch him as he cuts the meat.

While I gather the materials, I glance at Coral and Jonathan, who sits awfully close to each other. When I'm done and come back to them, they both giggle, but they try to hide it when they see me.

I throw down the branches on the ground and then sit down and start to build them up for the fire, and once in a while I throw an eye at my brother. He looks happy. Especially when Coral whispers something to him. Has he already gotten over last night? I want to object, but it's his choice. He can take care of himself. I have to trust him.

I hand over some branches to Coral and tell her to cut the tips of them so they get sharp, which she does.

When we're all done, we put the meat on the sticks, and Coral starts a fire with two small rocks. Then we cook the meat over the fire, and we get done just before it gets dark. We quickly put out the fire and decide to walk back towards the Cornucopia. We eat the meat while we walk, cause we can't risk staying by the fire in case it attracts tributes that wants to kill us.

After about an hour we reach the edge of the woods. It has gotten quite dark, but I can still see the Careers sitting around the Cornucopia. Have they been here all day? Shouldn't they be out killing people? Though when I count the tributes, I realize that not all of them are there. There's only 3 there. Two boys and one girl. I don't see Denim or Ruby, Denim's district partner.

"Not all of them are there. We should be careful in case the other two come back and sees us." I whisper to the others, keeping my eyes on the Careers.

"Hey, now that we're here, what are we going to do? Just stare at them?" Jonathan asks. I didn't really think of that…

"I'm way ahead of you. I noticed that the Cornucopia isn't placed exactly in the middle of this clearing. It's closer to the surroundings over there, where the woods and the houses meet. I suggest we head over there and climb up some trees where we can easily hide, but still have a good view of the Careers. Then you could shoot at least one of them." Coral says and points towards the place she's talking about.

"Erm… I guess it could work" I say, quite unsure. Not about the idea, I think the idea's good, but I doubt in myself. I never know if I will hit or not.

It can't hurt to try, so Coral leads us to the spot that works best for her plan. As we walk I glance towards the Careers, but that only makes me more nervous and doubting. Jonathan and Coral walks, of course, right next to each other.

By the time we get there it has gotten even darker, and that doesn't really get my hopes up. Also, Denim and Ruby got back to the Cornucopia right after a cannon sounded, and then Denim went back to the woods with another guy, who Coral says is her district partner Zane.

We carefully climb up some tall trees. Coral and I climb up one as close to the Cornucopia as possible, and Jonathan takes one behind us.

"I could suggest one of them, but they're all dangerous" Coral says.

I look at the three tributes sitting by the horn, without a clue what's happening.

"Mason's the largest, so he's really hard to get on hand-to-hand combat. But your brother could probably take him down if he has to" Coral explains and glances back at Jonathan. I look at the boy from 2. He sure is big.

"Alana is really advanced in like, everything she does. You see that long stick-thing next to her? Yeah, she fights with that. And you don't want her to hit you in the head with that, cause then you'll be knocked out for a month. I mean, if we wouldn't be here, 'cause now she will obviously kill you. She looks like a ninja or something when she fights with that. It may not be deadly, but it's close to."

Alana must be the girl from 2, cause I know that the other girl is Ruby. Alana is tall, and I really don't want to get too close to her and that stick-thing.

"Ruby is so small, very flexible, and really fast, so she escapes easily. She's handy with her knives, and her eyes are creepy. If you're in the middle of a fight and get a glimpse at those ice-blue eyes, you're going to stop yourself and then you won't even have the time to think '_What was that?_' before she slits your throat."

It's too dark outside and I'm too far away to see the girl from 1's eyes, but I actually doubt that I will get distracted from them.

"The best would be to shoot them all, but at least one of them is good enough" Coral tells me and then leans back against the tree as to watch me while I decide what to do. _Who to shoot._

As I load my bow and try to figure who I'm going to kill I realize how brutal it is. But I did do it earlier. I killed a boy. But I didn't really realize what I was doing then. I just wanted to survive. It happened so fast then, so I just did it. This time I have time to think of what I'm doing. Who I'm aiming at.

I decide to go for Alana, because she's closest to me. I load my bow and aim at her head. I take a deep breath, and to make sure I maybe hit, guess what I'm doing? I'm picturing Denim.

A few seconds after I release the string the girl falls together and a cannon booms. The other two tributes next to her stand up in the blink of an eye and look in the direction where the arrow came from. _Our direction._

I almost jump down from the tree in panic, because I think that they saw me and are coming to kill me, but Coral stops me. She puts a hand on my arm and when I look at her she holds a finger at her lips to make sure I don't make a sound.

The tributes in front of me seem confused. They look around to find the killer, but they don't see us. Mason picks up an axe from the ground and Ruby grips one of her knives and they start walking in our direction. I immediately panic, again, thinking that they did see us, but then I figure that it's not that strange that they're walking towards us. They're just trying to find the owner of that arrow. _Me._

They walk right under the trees we're sitting in. They stop and look around. Maybe I should shoot one of them now? I look up and expect to see Coral, but she's not there. Where did she go? I look around, but carefully so I won't make a sound. She surely didn't make a sound when she disappeared. I look at Jonathan, but he's looking down at Mason and Ruby, so he probably doesn't know where she is. Where did she…? How did she…?

Suddenly another cannon booms over the Arena.

* * *

**Wow, this week went fast. I woke up today and I realized it was Sunday, and I hadn't written that much on this chapter. But I made it! ;)**

**I'm going to start 'answering' to my reviews, I think it feels a little more personal then. Feel free to come with ideas and suggestions about what you want to happen or what you want to know more about :)**

**_MissBunburyHope:_ Jonathan and Coral's relationship is quite interesting, and I can't wait for you to find out more about them. Phoenix did kill that boy quite easily, but it all happened so fast, she didn't really think about it. I hope you like what happened now when they met Lupia :)**

_**Anonymous fan:**_** Thank you so much! I got really happy when I read your review, so thank you! I'm glad you like my story :)**

**I'm not quite finished with re-writing the first chapters, but I'm nearly there.**

**Hope you liked this chapter, and please review! :)**


End file.
